Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That is brilliant. I have a suggestion about where some of those places may come from. A couple of months ago my office was contacted by a young woman who took part in a QQI level 5 course in nursing. She got full distinctions on the course but was unable to access university because there were a limited number of places for people transitioning from QQI level 5 to nursing at university and college level.

We called around to different colleges and determined that at QQI level 5, or colleges of further education, there were between 1,168 and 1,296 places for nursing, depending on interest, but there were only 152 places in 13 colleges for students trying to access nursing through that route. We also have the figures for midwifery. Could we look at improving access via this route of QQI level 5 courses? Students have a passion for the subject but they simply cannot access the places in colleges. We could look at this way of increasing the cohort in question almost immediately.

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