Mary O'Rourke (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)

I do not fault the college. As the director very earnestly told me, one cannot single out a particular applicant. I had a long conversation with the chaplain of the college, who would be very keen to help this family. The Department of Education and Science owes it to those young people, whom they have nurtured through the latter stage of primary and secondary levels, to help them progress .

I wish also to speak on the very strange case of Hibernia College, which trains more than half of the primary teachers in this land. If one visits any primary school from Donegal to Cork, Galway to Dublin and Athlone in between, one will find Hibernia College students teaching diligently and well in the classrooms and their pupils listening diligently and learning well. However, because Hibernia College is a private college its students are not eligible for student support grants. Private colleges are exempt. However, these students teach in our public primary schools at no expense to the taxpayer. The present primary teaching colleges receive large grants every year from the Exchequer through the Department of Education and Science, and so they should as they are doing wonderful work. However, so are the Hibernia College students, which does not cost the Exchequer, taxpayer or Departments of Finance or Education and Science one cent. It is turning out the most marvellously attuned, clever and well endowed young teachers who, as I said, can be found teaching throughout Ireland. I was constantly amazed, when canvassing in rural Westmeath during the last general election campaign, to find so many students studying at Hibernia College. One would go to a house with the register and tick off Mum and Dad and maybe a young man working, and then, upon asking where Mary was, one would be told she was upstairs studying as she was a Hibernia student. Mary would then come down and ask me if I had ever heard of Hibernia and say she was a student there and that it was a marvellous teacher training course. One can do a postgraduate course for one year after one's BA or BSc degree, or one can do a course ab initio.

What is really odd about this situation is that Hibernia College is now delivering teacher training for primary school teachers throughout the UK, through the various decentralised student support bodies and teacher training colleges. Hibernia is now recognised as the pre-eminent college in the UK. I will declare an interest at this point, although it is not monetary but friendly, in that I am a friend of the director of the college. It is nothing more and nothing less. I knew him many years ago in Boston and kept up the friendship over the years. I am in admiration of him and the tight-knit team who are working wonders for the primary school teachers of Ireland.

Last Saturday week in my clinic I met a lovely young woman, a separated mother of three young children who was waiting for her formal separation. She has a primary degree and she wishes to do a Hibernia primary teaching course. However, she cannot get grant support. Another Deputy in this House who has taken up her case received a firm "No" from the Minister. This is in accordance with the current rules and I am not faulting the Minister because the rules state that one cannot receive a grant when studying at a private college. I can understand this to a certain extent. If we were talking about a private college of beauty or astrology, I would not be surprised, but this is a private college that provides primary teaching qualifications, whose graduates are going straight into primary schools and contributing to the educational well-being of young people.

I ask the Minister of State to consider these two issues, about which I am glad to have the opportunity of speaking in the House. While I support the Bill, because it makes sense out of mayhem and puts a shape on many things that needed it, I expect the Minister to come back to me on both of these issues.

Deputy Deenihan spoke very accurately of a previous Minister, Gemma Hussey, until he caught sight of me and linked me with it. Fair dues to him; he did that anyway.

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