Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Certainly. The Minister of State highlighted a key concern and perhaps it will be the resolution we will come to on Report Stage. In the Universities Act, "elected officers" are referred to. That is a key point because it is an element that is not present in this Bill. The definition of "student" is included in a subsection of the Bill but the question of the students' union, an election and it being democratically mandated is a crucial point. Maybe we will find other ways, but on that crucial question, we cannot have a situation whereby, as the Minister of State described it, we may have a number of people who do not have a particular mandate and were not elected.