Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I find the Minister's reply disappointing. The announcement made by him yesterday was that the overall budget for the Department of Education and Skills was in the region of €9 billion. It would cost €1 million to resolve the issue I have outlined. We all know the background to it and I fully accept that we were in an economic crisis. We have all heard that 1,000 times, but we have also heard that the recovery is happening, that things are better now, that we have more money and that there are chances to repair the cutbacks and reductions that took place in recent years. That would be a reasonable expectation on the part of those in society who have endured huge pain. It appears that yesterday's budgetary announcement did not really do a huge amount for those studying at third level or training in various colleges. This is one such measure which would cost €1 million out of the €9 billion at the Minister's disposal. While I appreciate that he is not in a position to change the decisions made yesterday, I urge him to give some indication that he has a vision for the future - to paraphrase him - in rowing back on the difficult decisions made and that we can look forward to this type of measure being somewhere near the top of his priority list when trying to reverse the cutbacks introduced in the past.