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

I do not need to dwell any more deeply on this. Last year, for example, 1,296 students were in colleges of further education who would have made exceptionally good nurses. They chose that pathway, studying for a year in the area, before finding there were very limited places for them in university. I worked in career guidance for early school-leavers, encouraging people to do nursing that way because they would have been fantastic in the field. They might do great over the year but the pathways are very limited. We can and should address this. I appreciate that universities are autonomous but there is a exceptional talent pool in those FETAC courses. We should harness it and give those people the option to progress to university and a vocation.

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