Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

The Minister is aware that there has been a huge increase in participation in further and higher education, thankfully. The number of students in third level education increased from 100,000 in 1997 to 160,000 in 2010. Such a 60% increase was a remarkable and necessary achievement. Like everyone else in this House, I want to see a further increase in participation levels. I ask the Minister to deny that the Government is considering putting a cap on student numbers in 2012.

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