By any standard, the students who enter higher education in 2020 will have a very greatly diminished student experience. Against that background, it is completely unjustifiable to charge the highest student contribution fee in Europe. It is completely unjustifiable to charge students anything at all but to charge them €3,000 a year when they have no ability to get part-time work, their family incomes may have been hit and they will have a diminished student experience is unacceptable. The Minister should abolish or…

Germany, Iceland, France, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Slovenia and the Czech Republic have no student contribution fees. Spain, a country that was hammered by austerity, has an annual student contribution fee of €500 yet we are charging €3,000. Now we are going to be charging that for a hugely diminished third level experience for the class of 2020. Any additional funding is welcome but the key metric is funding per student. Under various Fine Gael Governments, that has dropped by 43%. The numbers in higher education …

I just pointed out a number of European countries where they do not have a contribution fee. That is the standard we should reach rather than having the highest fees. The level of investment per student in this country for most categories of students is less than the amount of public investment into horses. I like horses but I prefer students. I think they are more important and they add something very significant over their lifetimes additional to Exchequer revenues and so on. We need to dramatically increase the …

Except taxis.

We need a referendum on the right to housing. I submitted a Bill to that effect, looking to change Article 43 of the Constitution to delimit the rights of private property in order to vindicate the right to affordable, dignified and appropriate housing for all in the last couple of weeks. The Taoiseach should support that Bill and fast-track the move towards a referendum. The scandal of land hoarding and sitting on empty buildings was an outrage prior to Covid but now it is absolutely unjustifiable. I will give an …

The Bill is here.

Imperial arrogance is the stock in trade of the British Tory establishment. Johnson's announcement of his intention to breach international law is very much in line with that rotten and arrogant tradition but it is also a direct snub and insult to the Taoiseach and to the people of this country. It is a reckless and dangerous assertion by Boris Johnson. It endangers peace and stability in this country and once again summons up the prospect of hard borders and all the conflict that can ensue. The Taoiseach needs to …

I thank the Rural Independent Group for putting forward this motion. It seeks to achieve exactly what our amendment to the Bill last week sought to do, namely, remove the emergency power being given to the Minister to make regulations which have not been properly debated or scrutinised in this House penal offences. It is a very wide-ranging and draconian power which we do not believe the Minister should have. This is not just about regulations in pubs. It is about whether we should give powers to a Minister and, in…

The new pecking order.

The backbencher party, a new party.

We just witnessed another reason the manipulation of the speaking order is very regressive step. The senior Minister has left before the opening spokespeople of four different groups in the Parliament will have a chance to put points to him, whereas he has heard three or four from his own party before that. It is a disgrace. In the two minutes I have left I will say this: the Minister questioned some of the Opposition over pointing to the inconsistencies in the guidelines and the messages and he says that we have t…

Why can the Taoiseach not do it for the Debenhams workers?

It is designed to-----

It is not agreed. I very rarely, if ever, miss a Business Committee meeting but I feel like saying that while the cat is away, the mice will play. Questions on Promised Legislation has disappeared from the normal schedule where we might, for example, ask the Taoiseach when the legislation to implement the Duffy Cahill report will be brought forward. The Government, having knocked the smaller parties down the pecking order in an effort to gag them at the end of the summer recess, has now given itself extra time abov…

The neck is extraordinary. Also, there was an agreement at the Business Committee two meetings ago to have a debate on the economic situation this week, particularly given the Government's plans to axe the pandemic unemployment payments, PUP, the week after that. On multiple grounds, therefore, I object to the Order of Business.

The Government did not respond to the point on additional time, above and beyond that associated with the manipulation of the speaking order executed at the end of summer term.

That is the proposed business. There is additional time for the Government, above and beyond that associated with the cynical manipulation already rammed through.

The Government-----

I am just wondering if they are from the same party-----

No, I am not.