John Dolan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In terms of the juxtaposing of "required" and "reasonable", is the following reasonable? Let us assume two children in a family, who are approaching the age of 18, are sitting around chatting to their aunts, uncles or whoever who ask them where they will go next year. One of them will be able to make the normal reply that he or she is thinking of this college, that college or whatever. The sibling with a disability will be silent because of the gap between "required" and "reasonable".

As much as €1.5 billion has been spent, just to take this issue, on third level education in Ireland. That is a lot of money. The problem arises for the person who is deaf or has any disability because it is the extra cost above the normal for everyone else that is looked at in the accounting, not taking that small number of people against the whole budget for that institution or for that sector. That is where the rub comes into play. The institution or the system will say that it costs too much for a person with a disability but it is a very marginal cost when compared with the whole €1.5 billion. That is the problem that the word "reasonable" does not reasonably get us over.