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

I have no doubt that the Minister of State understands the details of the issue very well. The change, however, is not a trivial or small one. For those concerned, it represents a considerable setback, and it is causing great stress, anxiety and upset. The Minister of State will agree that upsetting students is nothing to be proud of. The Minister of State can achieve the objective by ensuring the minimum requirements will apply only prospectively. The Department announced that, from 2017, every leaving certificate student knew what requirements had to be met, in the view that there was no problem. The response circulated is the glib Department answer. It does not pass legal muster. The point is that the students were assured that a C3, for example, was adequate, and they did their undergraduate degree on that basis, with a view to moving on having obtained their C3 along with their music degree, arts degree or whatever. The Department unilaterally changed the goalposts, however. That is not right in law. Under European law, this falls. The Minister of State's officials better get off their butts and make sure what I propose is done immediately. We need the students to be notified in January or February in order they can start their master's in education course in September. The answer circulated suggests somebody who qualified in 2011 would be affected if applying to do the master's course in education in 2021. These individuals are probably out in Dubai or elsewhere and are married and settled down. The last thing they are worried about is the master's degree in education.

The reply adds insult to injury. How dare the officials say there is something on the website that can take the place of the leaving certificate grade. Does the Minister of State think we came up the River Liffey in a banana boat with a goose pulling it? That is nonsense. In other words, a student who has achieved a 1.1 or 2.1 in his or her primary degree is told to buzz off to some place to try to get a C2 or C1 in Irish or whatever is required. That is a typical gobbledygook bureaucratic reply that I resent. I want the Minister of State to solve this problem because, if she does not, we will see the students in court.

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