Jackie Cahill (Tipperary, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I will be parochial in my comments and I make no apology for that. My home town of Thurles has an ever-growing reputation as an academic centre. There are four excellent second level schools in the town, two of the very few boarding girls' schools in the country, namely, Presentation Secondary School and Ursuline Secondary School, the Christian Brothers Secondary School, Thurles, where I was educated, and Coláiste Mhuire Co-Ed. We have ever-expanding academic activities and, having achieved technological university status last year, Thurles has huge potential for an ever-growing academic centre. I would like to make a few proposals to the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, as to how that potential can be advanced and exploited.

Thurles town is a prime location for a second home economics teacher training course for this country. Last summer, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, accepted my invitation to my home town, where he met senior Mary Immaculate College management, including the college's president, Professor Eugene Wall, and the head of St. Patrick's Campus, Dr. Finn Ó Murchú. There is a massive demand for home economics teachers in this country, with schools struggling to fill the posts and the need to train more teachers obvious. Currently, the only four-year home economics teacher training course in the country is based in Sligo. There is a clear opening for a second option in the southern part of the country. We have an opportunity to establish Thurles as the educational hub for the midlands and mid-west. We have the rail and road infrastructure and top-class post-primary education in our town. We also have the national apprenticeship centre in Archerstown, training close to 300 apprentices at any one time.

As stated, we have the two university campuses in the town, Mary Immaculate College and the Technological University of the Shannon. Tipperary education and training board, ETB, and Mary Immaculate College Thurles have worked closely on this new course. With the support of the Government, they believe they are in a position to offer home economics in Thurles in September 2023. More important, this major benefit to higher education in the region will come with very little cost to the Exchequer. Tipperary ETB can furnish the relevant resources such as the kitchens needed.

Mary Immaculate College, in turn, is anxious that further education students can continue to access their teacher preparation programmes through the programme for access to higher education, PATH. Mary Immaculate College in Thurles currently has 475 students at undergraduate level studying to be post-primary teachers in Gaeilge, mathematics, business, religion and accounting. The addition of home economics would consolidate its position in the educational landscape and meet a clear need in our educational system.

We have made great progress to date in securing a potential home economics teacher training course for Thurles, and indeed the entire region, since the Minister's initial meeting with the university management. Now we need to find the political will and push to make this a reality from September 2023. I am asking for this final political push to get this welcome boost to education in the southern region over the line. Let us deliver a home economics teacher training course in Thurles for September 2023.

As the Minister of State is well aware, one of Ireland's new technological universities has a campus based in Thurles. The Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, TUS, formerly the Limerick Institute of Technology, has ambitious and welcome plans for the development of a campus and for a future at the heart of education in Thurles. Central to any and all development of our further and higher education institutions in Thurles must be the provision of purpose-built student accommodation. There is massive demand in Thurles every August and September when students are rushing to secure accommodation for the coming academic year. This is placing an even greater strain on the private rental market in the town. Thurles needs purpose-built student accommodation to meet the demand of the rising numbers of students who now see the town as an attractive location to further their education. Whether it is the apprentice in the national apprentice centre in Archerstown, students availing of further education through the education and training board, ETB, or students in higher education in Mary Immaculate College or TUS, education in Thurles is going from strength to strength. We desperately need the student accommodation to match.

Tipperary ETB and TUS intend to further enhance the co-operation between the two educational institutes in Thurles town. This is an important step as it will provide a clear pathway for students who wish to continue from further education into higher education, which I know is a priority for the Department. As such, I am asking for a commitment from the Minister of State that his Department will engage further with Tipperary ETB and TUS to ensure people in Tipperary and the larger region can avail of these pathways from further to higher education.

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