Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

These are choices the Government can make. If the Minister of State believes in free education, it is not good enough to say, "I believe in free education, but..." If the Government believes in free education, it should put the money into the system. At this stage in the game no one in Ireland is going to be bought off with the idea of tax cuts; what they want is service provision.

I want to finish by referencing some of the contributions made yesterday at the briefing organised by Senator Ivana Bacik which was enlightening for anyone who was present. The last presentation was made by Mr. Kevin Donoghue, chairperson of Labour Youth. He referred to the glory of the sound of a pen on paper, the glory of the anxiety young people felt at examination time and the glory of the pride in the voice of parents when they spoke about their children going to college. People who have benefited from third level education and do not know anyone who has not gone to third level education and think everyone else is just like them do not understand the power of the words "college" and "university" or the bizarre fact that even examination time anxiety is so liberating.