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

I will ask the Minister a number of questions but they are all on the same issue. It is an issue I have been raising since she took office so I am glad to have an opportunity to discuss it with her here today. It relates to teacher training and has not received the attention it deserves. The Minister stated that 3,400 primary and post-primary teachers will qualify this year. Is that the total number from public colleges only or the overall total including private-sector colleges? That is my first question.

I cannot understand why successive Governments have maintained these caps when there is clearly a need and a demand, as we often discuss here. Alarmingly, the only other course that is capped in the same way is nursing. Just this year, the same private college has moved into that space and begun providing undergraduate nursing courses for those who can afford to pay €8,000 a year. The crux of the problem here is that it relates to whether a student can afford to be a teacher or a nurse, given the only place students can access is a private college. Whether by mistake or design, the cap on primary teacher training has allowed for the steady transfer of the training of primary school teachers from the public to the private sector, and it is privatisation by stealth. Moreover, the public colleges are champing at the bit to deliver the in-demand courses but they are unable to do that.

My understanding is that the Minister can set the intake cap in November for the following academic year, but has she yet set the annual intake for the next academic year? Each student, regardless of the college attended, represents a future primary school teacher and is important to our education system and our workforce. Private colleges can provide a very good service and are run by dedicated staff but, as I said, all students in the private sector have to pay about €6,000 in additional fees. Students who meet the academic criteria should have the right to attend college if they wish and our public institutes should have the right to offer those courses. Will the Minister abolish the cap and allow all students who would prefer to do so to study at a publicly owned college?