Dr. Anne-Marie Butler:

On the courses and changes we have seen, I will give a very quick overview of some of the changes. Looking first at our distance students, those are students who are over 23 and already hold a level 6 qualification. Many, as Professor Pierce said, are working in other areas. They are certainly asking us to cover more around biodiversity, organic farming, bees and the natural environment rather than grassland management and what would have been seen as the traditional green cert courses. We are doing a lot of work in that area. There is a major focus on it and we are certainly looking at modules that can work within that. Looking at the full-time students, the numbers are pretty stable but we see interesting trends. Dairy farming is very popular with our full-time students but in Ballyhaise College, there are more students looking to do beef and sheep than dairy farming. There is a little bit of variation across the country. Our horticulture numbers were probably the lower element but in the apprenticeships, which we just spoke about, we have seen a renewed interest in horticulture and particularly from people in the industry looking to chat to us about where they can upskill in that area. I would also mention forestry. We would typically bring about 15 full-time students a year into forestry. There is very stable, steady demand. They are certainly not the big numbers we have in the other sectors. It was interesting what happened recently. We have a forestry simulator in Ballyhaise College, compliments of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. It is there a couple of years. The students went to Finland on a field trip and when they were in the forest they were offered the chance to make use of a piece of machinery that costs €500,000.

When they got up on the machinery, it had the very same controls as in those in the control room in Ballyhaise College. It just shows the power of learning and what we can do with the support of the Department and others in bringing that into the classrooms. It is very powerful. Those 15 graduates tend to be snapped up.

As a former student of a careers guidance teacher who had a very different career path for me, I very much take the Deputy's viewpoint on career guidance and I completely agree. We also have a role to play with parents - I mean no disrespect to my two friends here beside me - around where they see their children going. As a result of this evening's discussion, the importance of trying to link further into primary and secondary schools to create awareness has resonated with me. For many people, the sector is very vibrant. All of us here have studied agriculture and gone in different ways. We have a very important role to play in that regard.