Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and the Minister of State for coming before the House. As a regular visitor to the committee on higher education, I find it is always great to engage with them, as we have done on numerous occasions in the past few weeks.

The Minister touched on an area in which I have a particular interest. I was really pleased with his recent announcement on pathways to higher and further education. It is a particularly exciting opportunity within his Department and the Department of Education because it has been so long required for students. As the Minister quite rightly pointed out, for 17-year-olds to make choices at that young age in what could potentially affect the rest of their lives, there really needs to be a somewhat broader focus than the narrow focus of the CAO system. In tandem with the review of the leaving certificate, which my committee has agreed to undertake, it is a particularly exciting time for what is potentially an enormous beneficial change to the education sector in Ireland. I was also particularly pleased to hear the Minister talk of apprenticeships, further training courses and such, which form part of the State's offering. I have referred the Minister before to my proposals in my constituency, particularly in Swords, which is ready-made for such a training facility to be provided given the population and the proposed population growth in the near future. The training and apprenticeship opportunities the Minister of State has just outlined, specifically the national apprenticeship office and the plan being brought forward, are a really welcome development. I think the Minister will accept that education is the great leveller. It really does not matter what socioeconomic, cultural or ethnic background one comes from; education is an opportunity to realise the best that one can be. Therefore, the provision of the options the Minister has outlined is extremely useful.

I also wish to comment on the SUSI review. As the Minister will be aware, I have engaged on this matter in my constituency and there has been some really great feedback from that. There is great potential for beneficial change to be made there. When we look at expanding approved institutions, the barriers to graduate medical students, for instance, have been raised with me. They are important issues we can flesh out, most likely in committee at a later stage.

The Minister referred to foreign students, who are an integral part of our third level offering. It is heartening to hear there have been some improvements, though of course there is still the issue of fees, specifically when it comes to those students who come in from abroad but have not been able to attend in the same way, especially with those courses that require in-person learning.

My time is up but I will just say that for the first time in my ten years in this House, there are aspects to the education programme, apart from the schools building programme, that I am excited about. Those are some of the aspects I find particularly engaging at this time in the development of the new Department.

See this speech in context