It is your motion.

Fact check.

I have a suggestion for the Minister. It is to abolish all fees for third level and for apprenticeships. We have critical shortages in skills across our economy and across our society. It makes no sense to have fees. My question today particularly relates to the Union of Students in Ireland's concerns that not only is the Government not going to abolish fees, which it should, but it is actually thinking of getting rid of the once-off reduction of €1,000, which was brought in over the last years. The Minister commen…

Yes, the Minister comes in and then Deputy McGettigan gets to respond.

It is unusual for Priority Questions to be grouped.

It is unusual for Priority Questions to be grouped.

Yeah, right. Is the Minister considering getting rid of the temporary reduction in fees or not? He should just tell us straight. He should not get rid of it. Doing so is outrageous and he should be going in the opposite direction. Why? There is now a 15% dropout rate among undergraduates. Five thousand drop out in first year, representing an increase in recent times up to 12% from 9%. What government could stand over that when we have shortages in the construction profession, trades, the healthcare sector and indus…

If 5,000 undergraduates dropping out each year does not concern the Minister, he really needs to rethink his being the Minister for higher education. It is obvious that we have an urgent problem affecting our entire economy and society owing to the lack of skilled people, as well as the mental health issues and all the stress put on the students who drop out and their families. I suspect there is a financial reason. Every year, the most profitable multinational corporations get €800 million in research and developm…

I apologise that I was not here for the earlier discussions. I was tied up at another meeting. I will follow on from Deputy Coppinger's contribution. I will preface my remarks by noting that there is a pretty awful history in this country of people who did not fit into the conventional idea of the Catholic family, marriage and so on being treated in a lesser way, not accommodated at all or even being stigmatised because they were not in a married relationship sanctified by a certain religious outlook. I thought we …

I will throw in an extra issue because I am talking to the Minister. I do not know the next time I will get to. It is slightly off topic but it is under the Minister’s brief. It is another great unfairness that needs to be addressed and probably is between the Minister and the Minister for housing. It is about people who go over eligibility thresholds for social housing support. When they go over those thresholds, even if they have been on the housing list for 15 or 20 years, all of a sudden they have gone off a cl…

-----to access housing to get out of homelessness.

It would be a contribution to addressing the housing crisis were the Minister to look at it-----

I took advantage and I am sorry.

The statue of James Connolly is behind us and the portrait of Countess Markievicz is in the hall. They were two of Ireland's greatest revolutionaries who stood for working people and stood against empire. They set up the Irish Neutrality League in 1914. That is where our tradition of neutrality comes from. They were two of the greatest revolutionaries and they were revered by the people of this country because they opposed war, empire and colonialism. That is where the tradition comes from. The Irish Government wan…

You did that by pulling a stroke.

You did not even meet us.

That is disingenuous.

It is all out now. Giving the game away now.

The crash was a good imitation of stability.

Exactly.