The cost of third level education for parents with a number of children in college was also referred to by Senator Ó Domhnaill. My first thought was that it was unfortunate that each student found a course in three different universities when he recounted his clinic case. This is a problem but parents make extraordinary sacrifices to give their children an education. I recall when I was struggling years ago as an architectural student, trying to get my head around the periodic table, my father saying to me that I should keep studying and not give up because no matter how difficult I would find it, no bank or recession or economic downturn can take away my qualification. Very few of his generation had gone to third level college and his advice is apposite now. A qualification is costly and how it is paid for is secondary. Third level education costs money and how we, as a society, fund it is a secondary issue but part and parcel of the difficulty, according to the Provost of Trinity College, Dr. Prendergast, is the ratio of academic staff to students has deteriorated in the academic sphere. This is one of the criteria measured by the QS world university rankings and other agencies and we have to be conscious of its impact.