Excuse me, Minister of State.
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The Deputy is on her feet.
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Can the clock be stopped because this is unfair on the Deputy?
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Minister of State-----
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Education is supposed to be free in this country but unfortunately this year we have seen exactly how it is not free. Books are free, which is great, but there is an ever-increasing reliance on tablets which are not free. In fact, not only are they not free, they cost between €700 and €800 each. Exam fees are being reintroduced for the leaving certificate and junior cycle exams. There was no warning about that. There was six weeks for them to be paid in. They have not been paid since before Covid by any family. In a cost-of-living crisis that was a massive surprise for those families. There is also what seems to be a now annual threat around third level fees and the failure to reduce them. We seem to have this conversation every year as young people are studying for their state exams. There are people working in our education system who are not earning a living wage. Recently the joint committee on education heard from local training initiative, LTI, workers who told us their wages were so incredibly low that they wanted to have what the community training centre, CTC, workers have even though the CTC workers are saying they cannot live on those wages and they want to get what the Youthreach workers are getting. We have a system where parents cannot afford to pay for their free education and the workers who are working in education cannot afford to live. If the Government does not recognise there is a cost-of-living crisis maybe it should take a walk down Grafton Street and turn off it. They could wait and see the people I saw last night as I was on the way home who were waiting for the soup run. One woman was lying on her side up against the wall – utterly sad and utterly cold and lonely. I thought, “Is this what we have in 2026?” This is a really rich country and people are reliant on soup runs. I pay special tribute to the Muslim Sisters of Éire who go out every single week and support people in this city. They are absolutely amazing and I really want to praise them.
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