Mr. Ned Costello:

For the record, I believe he raised an interesting issue, which is the distinction between employability and narrow disciplinary focus. Our university system is better in terms of employability of graduates. Narrow disciplinary focus does not equate with employability. We have highly employable graduates and all the OECD data show that the returns to higher education and to higher qualifications in higher education are very high in Ireland.

Senator White raised an interesting point about a student finding out what he or she likes and pursuing it. That underpins much of our thinking about broader entry routes. While that again might seem slightly contradictory to meeting narrow skills needs, it offers potential for students to enter a more broadly based route into university, find out what they like within that broad discipline and specialise in it from second year onwards. There is the reality that I often see reflected, which is that many of us start off at primary degree level in things that we do not end up pursuing for life and we go on and achieve other qualifications. Indeed I have experience of that, myself.