Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy is entirely right. Issues around access and disadvantage start much earlier than when people reach the age to attend third level. This is why the national access and inclusion plan engages with other Departments, including the Departments of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth, Education and Social Protection to look at barriers that people can encounter earlier in life and to try to break these down.

I enjoyed my visit to North Presentation Secondary School with the Deputy. It is so important that we get into schools, talk to students and change the mind set around third-level options to include a much broader conversation on apprenticeships, traineeships, further education and training, and the technological universities, not that narrow, sometimes elitist view as to what third-level education can be.

I will certainly keep in touch with Deputy Colm Burke and maybe send him a detailed note on how we are interacting to try to break down barriers earlier in the cycle.

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