Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to echo Professor Rogers's point that we tend to think of students as being in a particular age cohort so I should take out my student card and point out that I am one of those impacted. It comes to questions about participation rates and Deputy Conway-Walsh’s question about what makes Ireland different. We should be proud that we have one of the highest participation rates in higher education, much higher than many other European countries and that presents significant challenges as well. Do we place too much emphasis on higher education and not enough emphasis on further education and training? I get that there have to be elements of crossover. It is particularly a question for the TU sector, which will operate as a hybrid of the two. Fears have been expressed that in the move from institutes of technology to TUs, much of the traditional support may be lost.