Tomorrow, the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, will lead thousands of students from various student unions in a march to the gates of Leinster House. The message they want to send to the Taoiseach is that given the huge budget surpluses now available to the Government, it is absolutely unacceptable if some portion is not used to address rampant, endemic student poverty and, in particular, the student housing and accommodation crisis that is leaving thousands of students couch surfing, commuting huge distances and forking out fortunes on public transport just to get to college, where they are then being hit with all the cost-of-living hikes, registration fees and so on. They want to know whether the Government will address these issues and, in particular, if it will provide affordable on-campus student accommodation on the scale that is necessary to deal with the student housing and accommodation crisis.

Students will not be forgotten in the budget next week. In the previous budget, we increased the SUSI grant and made it available to more people. We reduced student contribution fees, provided the rent credit to students and increased funding for student accommodation. Hundreds of additional beds are now being provided every year on our university and third level campuses. While I cannot say what will be in the budget next Tuesday because it is not agreed yet, the approach we took in the previous budget was valid and we will seek to apply it again.