I raise the issue of students. It has been a bad couple of weeks for them. I listened carefully to the Minister's earlier answers. He framed this in the context of a once-off measure, as did the Minister, Deputy Lawless. However, the programme for Government states that the Government will continue to reduce student contribution fees over the lifetime of the Government, to ease the financial burden on students and families, at the start of each academic year - not some academic years. Some of the Government Deputies are jumping up and down about this as well. That is no harm but we need some real discussion about this because the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, is saying students will be deferring degrees as a result of this or even studying abroad. We are back to the €3,000 fees.

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I have the question. I ask the Ceann Comhairle to bear with me for a moment. The rest of the Deputies got good latitude.

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Was the reduction just for last year because there was an election?

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Was it just an election stunt for last year or is the Minister going to turn this around and do the right thing? That is the question.

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They try to work part-time jobs.

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All the money was just for the election.

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