James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)

I thank the Deputy for his comments and recently hosting me in Galway recently. On further course provision and the national imperative, I welcome the University of Galway's new pharmacy programme that we launched that day. There is also a rural GP programme that starts next year, which is critical. Having seen a paucity of rural GPs in my constituency, I welcome the initiative shown by the university in providing those new courses. Too often we see high points-type courses being oversubscribed and students being disappointed. Often that is ironic because they are courses that we need more graduates coming from. The answer is "Yes", we can look at reform of the CAO and we will do that in due course. However, more places solve many of those issues. I hope to increase capacity for those new courses. We have a new dentistry course, two further veterinary courses and medical courses coming onstream. There are 461 new disability places with the majority starting this September. This will be repeated for future years with further capacity coming onstream as we go through.

I will try to cover as many of the Deputy's questions as I can. On proximity to industry, the pursuit of knowledge and curiosity is something to be supported, fostered and championed, regardless of economic impact. However, economic impact is highly important as well. The technological universities are designed largely to be close to the regions and close to industry and, in many cases, to work in partnership and synergy with the local industrial sector or particular skill sets that might be in certain catchments.

I have been impressed by the PATH 4 programme as I have visited a few of the centres around the country. I will commit to continuing to support that funding. I note the Deputy's concern on that. It is well founded. It is such an important programme. I would like to do more on it. I am keen to maintain that.

We have had huge success on apprenticeships. We have 77 different offerings across apprenticeship programmes now. They are divided loosely into craft apprenticeships and consortia apprenticeships. These are loosely called traditional apprenticeships and less traditional ones. The intention is to continue to roll those out, support them and include more choices. The apprenticeship action plan is being reviewed at the moment. The new action plan for 2025 to 2030 will be launched later this year. I am very much on the same page on that.