Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Those students attained the necessary minimum requirement for the masters in primary education when they sat their leaving certificate some years ago and had a legitimate expectation, which is a principle of European Union law, that they would qualify for the course because they met all requirements that were in place at the time.

In order to meet the new minimum requirements, this cohort of students with a primary degree will have to resit the leaving certificate. Talk about Hobbe's law. A person could have a first or second class honours degree and be told that is no good because he or she does not meet the new minimum entry requirement in Irish. The Ceann Comhairle is fluent in Irish, tá sé líofa, and fair play to him. Those students have primary degrees. I only have a few words of Irish, unlike the Ceann Comhairle, but I know there is damn-all difference between a C3 and a C2. It is a semantic difference. We must ensure the Irish language is propagated and promoted but by changing the minimum requirement from a C3 to C2 we are depriving a significant cohort of students of the opportunity to become a teacher. This injustice must stop. It is likely that legal action will be taken. The officials must change this policy. I have made them fully aware of the difficulties it is causing. The officials are decent and reasonable and are wondering about opening Pandora's box. One should not do so. A defined cohort of students has been affected.

We must address this immediately. The Minister of State knows more about primary education than I will ever know, and she knows exactly how to resolve this.

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