Billy Lawless (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. As an educationalist herself, she understands the implications of this situation. The number of people involved is small, so we should be able to handle them. In many instances, a lot of the parents who emigrated through intra-company transfers and so on are high achievers with kids who are also high achievers and who would qualify for scholarships in the US, but they cannot avail of those because they are not American citizens. They return to Ireland as Irish citizens only to be penalised here as well. It is not fair.

The Minister of State is aware of another suggestion. The universities are autonomous bodies but we are still subsidising many of them and we should be examining the possibility of a scholarship scheme for those individuals coming home. There are cases in which parents cannot afford to send their children to university. That is not right.

I thank the Minister of State for her concern. She has a personal interest in this matter. I thank her for her response, which I appreciated.