Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am always conscious the Minister of State tends to come into this Chamber to wrap up every session, but is appropriate to pay tribute to her work. She is passionate about what she does and the fruits of her labour are now being seen. I will follow on from Senators Gavan and Conway. I have been raising this issue around international student health insurance and had a Commencement matter last week with the Minister of State's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan.

Frankly, I am frustrated. I introduced legislation on this issue. I was proposing to look at bringing forward amending legislation to this Bill, but I held off from doing so on the basis I would get certain guarantees that the issue would be addressed. I find the most frightening phrase in the public service is that this matter falls between a number of Departments. This one has been battered between the Department of Justice and the Department of Health, with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, for obvious reasons, having an interest in it as well.

This issue has now been running for 18 to 20 months. It was one of the earliest issues I brought up in this House, not long after my election. The Irish council for overseas students, the Union of Students in Ireland, the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association have all been raising it as a matter of concern. This has been running for a while.

The legislation I brought forward was one solution. However, I was told an easier solution would be found from the Department of Justice. I was told a number of weeks ago that there was imminent positive news. I was told last week by the Minister of State, Deputy Feighan, that the news was coming very soon. Perhaps the Minister of State might give us some good news, because it is crucial to these international students who, for the most part, tend to be healthy. They do not tend to pose a significant risk of ending up in our hospitals and so on. Unfortunately, a small number of them do.

However, international students enrich the higher education experience here in Ireland and it is important, coming out of the pandemic, for our higher education institutions to be in a position to attract significant numbers. I decided not to proceed with the amendment on the basis a solution would be found on this issue. However, I will be pressing ahead with this in the new year because of the number of promises I have seen, unless the Minister of State has good news here for us today.