Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

I join colleagues who have called for a debate on education. Some 15,000 to 20,000 students will demonstrate outside these Houses today and they are welcome to do so. As a nation, we do not pay water charges or domestic rates, we pay registration fees but we do not pay university fees and we pay child care benefits and State pensions to the super wealthy. This is unsustainable. Far from trying to prevent those who are less well off from securing a university education, it is essential that we begin to charge university fees for those who can pay, not to eliminate the possibility of such an education for those who cannot afford to university but to ensure resources are available to give equal opportunities to those people who heretofore could not afford to go and compete with the super wealthy and pay the €9,000 per year involved for a student to go to university. It is time that people who can afford to pay a contribution towards this do so. It is unsustainable that we continue to support the super wealthy and upper middle classes by paying levels of entitlement that are completely unsustainable.