Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that agricultural colleges, universities and institutes of technology that offer strong food and agricultural courses are hugely important. We do not have plans to build new agricultural colleges. What happened was that there was a dramatic fall-off in the numbers of young men, in particular, going to agricultural colleges. As a result, some of the colleges closed and there was huge pressure to close others. I remember sitting in a committee room trying to persuade policymakers that we should not be shutting colleges such as Rockwell, Gurteen, Clonakilty and others. Fortunately, that did not happen and now these colleges are operating at full capacity. Buildings are not the problem. The problem is the availability of adequate staffing and expertise.

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