Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates. In my years as a school principal I had many students from Hibernia College doing their teaching practice in the school. I am thinking of the three students who were in the school in 2007 and 2008 who were excellent. They all have jobs now and one of them is a vice-principal after a couple of years. The other two are very well regarded. I visited one of them recently in my old school. Hibernia College is doing a good job training teachers and the standards are very high. The teaching practice examiners are also very good and they give good advice.

I have a couple of questions. The legislation for the new education and training boards is going through both Houses. Is there a role for Hibernia College to use e-learning to teach language skills? A jobs fair was held recently in Dundalk. Persons with language skills are in demand from companies such as PayPal which hopes to employ more than 1,000 people. Currently, PayPal employs 220 but only 35 of those employees are Irish. The company is advertising abroad for workers.

Tá Anna Davitt anseo agus tá cúram na Gaeilge uirthi. An féidir leí cur síos a thabhairt dúinn ar caidé atá ar siúl ó thaobh na Gaeilge de i gColáiste Hibernia? Tá an-suim agam san ábhar sin.

My last question is whether Hibernia College would have any jobs for redundant Senators with a lot of experience in education. There is no such thing as a free lunch.