Mary White (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister and thank him for his presentation. It is very disappointing that since the Good Friday Agreement, the national strategy for higher education - particularly under the aegis of the Higher Education Authority - has not driven collaboration between North and South. The Minister should push the authority to drive that strategy and get the message out that we are in favour of collaboration.

I would like to hear the Minister's opinion on pre-school education. Would it not be a good idea to attach pre-school education to the national school structure? I was involved in opening a pre-school in Athlone. The school principal had a free classroom and gave it to two ex-SNA teachers who had undertaken further education. It was a very satisfactory situation in that school building.

A new school that was opened a few years ago in County Monaghan has its own privately-run pre-school attached. The Minister knows the point I am making. Would it not be ideal if our pre-school education was in the same building and on the same format as the national school? We would then have an equally high standard of training for pre-school education.