Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Some students who are doing postgraduate courses can get assistance towards fees if they attend State colleges. Does that also apply to Hibernia College? I ask the witnesses to expand on what has happened in the last ten years since the college became involved in providing postgraduate courses at primary level, in terms of the numbers of graduates and the number of jobs available in that period. During that period, have the numbers graduating from the State training colleges remained constant? If they have remained constant and Hibernia College is graduating 40% of new teachers, that implies there are 40% more graduates now than there were ten years ago. I ask the witnesses to compare the increased number of graduates with the demands within the system. The witnesses said that 80% of their graduates are being hired, according to the college's own internal survey. I am seeking figures for the number of jobs available and the number of graduates qualifying. While Hibernia College has been increasing the number of primary teaching graduates, the State has been paying the same money to the traditional teacher training colleges. If there is a big gap between the total number of graduates and the total number of teachers in the education system, then perhaps the State needs to reassess its funding of teacher training.

Obviously, the representatives are here promoting their own case. Hibernia College is a profit-making education provider and there is nothing wrong with that. Obviously, the programmes it provides must be of high quality in order to attract students. I was interested in the points made about the additional costs involved in educating students in the State colleges. The estimate provided was that it costs an additional €8,000 to €10,000 to educate students in the larger teacher training colleges. I ask the witnesses to give a breakdown of those figures and explain how they arrived at that estimate. The estimate given for the smaller training colleges was up to €40,000 per student, which is very high. I ask the witnesses to elaborate on that figure too.