Dr. Bryan Maguire:

Quality assurance is only a small part of the cost of any provision of education and training; the cost of the tutors, the accommodation, the learning materials, is the bigger portion of the cost. As the Chairman observed we are only looking at certification and quality assurance. The overall costing and who bears that cost will be rolled into who is paying for it, whether paid for through SOLAS, through the HSE, by employers or the individual. This has been the drift of our discussion all along, that the cost of external quality assurance and certification provided by QQI has to be factored into the overall cost of any provision. The way the provision is structured can make that either more or less burdensome. We will be flexible in discussing with the community and voluntary sector and other sectors how best to restructure to deliver the quality at the lowest cost.