Mr. Brendan Allen:

The Cathaoirleach talked about increasing the numbers. There are different models. We are considering models from the UK, where somebody might do an apprenticeship. A person could be working in a local authority as an administrator in a planning department. It is a question of having the right type of course. Over the years, we have had people in the institute who came in through Open University-type courses – typically run in the UK, including London – that would have had very limited attendance requirements. With the new hybrid model of course delivery, apprenticeship and Open University-type opportunities present themselves more and more. We have feedback that the cost of doing a masters degree is a barrier. It costs €20,000 or thereabouts for two years, which is prohibitive. It is a case of finding different models to achieve numbers at the scale we need.