Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Senator Clonan's speech has established a very important point, with which I agree, namely, that there is nothing like keeping lived experience at the heart of politics and reminding Members of both Houses that when we make decisions in here it impacts people's lives. It is important with regard to decisions around disabilities and students that there is accountability. I claim the same place, although obviously to a much smaller extent, when it comes to surrogacy and the failure to act or move. Having people with lived experience at the table is incredibly important. Nothing about us without us is certainly the philosophy of the Joint Committee on Disability Matters. Senator McGreehan and I have been members of the committee for the past two years and we are delighted that we have been joined on it by Senator Clonan. We remind people every week that the decisions being made are very important, and the same applies to the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth.

We saw the election in Italy last weekend. We saw the awful danger from the fallout from the financial crash and the manner in which the EU dealt with it, which was very different from the way it dealt with the Covid crisis. Consequently, the Irish Government was also able to deal with things differently. When we look at all of that, we should be very chastened and defensive of our democracy. I completely agree with others on that.

We need to have not too far off on the horizon a projection of hope that says we see the issues and will deal with them. We do not always deal with issues fast enough but we certainly accept that young persons starting or finishing college do not have the same opportunities to own their own homes and they face challenges in terms of the sheer volume of work. It is a very different experience from the one that many of us experienced. I did not leave school and go to college but left school and went to work. However, we had an aspiration that by the time we reached a certain age we would own property, and I did. We owe a duty of care to young people that we hand them a scenario in which the climate issue, the financial situation and the right to home ownership are being dealt with. We must have a sense of urgency all of the time and a vision of hope. There are many issues that we can pick out or criticise. There is no question about that. I am not going to begin to attempt to defend what has been the lived experience of people with disabilities, because we have a massive body of work to do in that area. I see people like the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, and the Minister of State, Deputy Rabbitte, doing a huge amount of work. They are pushing all of the time. Sometimes they are pushing against an inertia that wants to hold onto an old way of doing things. We need to do that.

The Housing for All plan is not being delivered as quickly as I would like. I get frustrated. I have the privilege of sitting on the housing committee so I get to say that on a regular basis. I get the opportunity to input that. However, we see advances. Certainly, my party is a party of home ownership. It is one of my own particular passions. If people do not own their homes, what will happen when they retire and there is a drop in income? Eventually, this will come back on the State if we do not act on it quickly.

In regard to students, yesterday we saw a budget that shows the commitment of the Minister, Deputy Harris, that year-on-year fees will drop. We saw a significant intervention, which was the €1,000 decrease in fees this year. We have postgraduates and PhDs and we are now addressing the third level. It is very much the Minister's passion to make sure that year-on-year we will do better. Similarly, in ensuring we have student accommodation, we have looked at how students are able to give notice of only 28 days. That is unique to them. There are aspects we are building in that are student focused, but we have got to do that.

I thank the Independent Senators for tabling this motion because we have to keep students in focus. We have to ensure they are supported and feel confident that we have a vision for their future while we are acting in the here and now. Some €42 million was allocated to the programme for access to higher education between 2017 and 2022. That is dedicated funding for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and for bursaries. There are other subtle things that do not often get talked about. I wish I could speak for longer, but there you go.