Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologised to the Deputy previously because that was a mistake made with the Department during August. Apologies for that.

I was shocked at what happened with Grafton College and to the students, although they came under the students' assistance fund, but also to the teachers. That is why I, with my officials, whom I thank, really pushed that we put this together. We have now engaged Mr. Pat King and I am confident that at least now there is a mediation process.

I ask those who own the schools to engage. If we have a quality product, that will only help all the various stakeholders. It is embarrassing to see schools go to the wall and fail. We do not want that to happen. As I said, we want to have a quality product for students.

I wanted to ensure that teachers in such schools know that they will be paid and that there are proper financial structures behind them because currently we are not sure of that. All of that will happen under the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2018. The Deputy will be aware I am bringing in the international education mark. For a school to get an international education mark, it will have to show its books and the background of the school. As a result, we will be altogether more confident in what is happening.

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