Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If Sinn Féin is serious about government, it needs to be consistent in its stance, North and South.

With regard to this issue and what steps I am taking, this Government has increased the places in third level by 6,000 over the past two years. That is a massive increase. It is important that leaving certificate students hear that the number of applications to the CAO on deadline day this year versus last year was down 1,141. I say that to be, hopefully, somewhat reassuring to students. Now that we know the situation in respect of the leaving certificate and we have clarity earlier than we had last year, we will shortly see the breakdown from the CAO of how many students applied for the different courses. My Department will do what we did last year and the year before. We will work with the system on additional places. I fully agree with the Deputy on the issue of in-demand places. I have gone over my time. I would like to talk about that in my next response in regard to medicine and some of the steps we want to take this year.

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