I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak on the de Buitléir Report, the report of the advisory committee on third level student support. In the first instance it strikes me as rather strange that the expert body established had what appears to be peculiar terms of reference. It was asked to assess the criteria with regard to means and also the administration of the grant schemes. The terms of reference did not include consideration of the levels of Exchequer support for student maintenance and tuition, nor indeed was the impact of this to be presented differently.
The group was asked to consider the impact of covenants, student loans and the role of private colleges. This widened its scope somewhat, but nevertheless left out a very large area of State expenditure in education. Perhaps the reason for this was that the Callan report on who benefits from public expenditure in education was only a little over a year old when the committee was established.