Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is a very interesting scenario and I have been tracking nursing places and the need, because of the pandemic, for additional medicine and nursing places across the board. I have seen places in private colleges and they are charging way more. Why are we not investing in public places rather than allowing them to be privatised and to charge multiples of what it would be if a student was to access places publicly? We have always been told there are challenges around the numbers of nursing places, for example, because they could not get placements in hospitals in Mayo or elsewhere. These private colleges must have a place for such placements as well. Why are we going down that route rather than publicly funding these colleges? Are we not concerned about accessibility and that only people with money will end up even being able to train as nurses, never mind as it is currently with medicine and its associated costs?