Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his support for the scheme. This scheme will help people who can now access degree programmes outside the CAO process. I was recently in the Atlantic Technological University in the Deputy's part of the country. I met nursing students doing the new tertiary nursing degree. These students had been assessed for eligibility for the programme not based on their leaving certificate points but based on an interview and other assessments of their aptitude. That means students who might have had to go to the UK to study are doing nursing courses in the north west. We have enough challenges with staffing our own health service without staffing the British NHS. That is a really important development. More part-time and online education will remove the barriers for more people.

With the technological universities taking education into the regions, the degree courses available outside the dreaded points race and removing fees for anybody doing part-time or online education, starting with those most in need, those with a household income of just below €56,000, it gives us a real platform on which to build. We will build on it in the years ahead by continuing to reduce fees and increase grants. In the years ahead we will consider how we can incorporate maintenance grants as part of the free fees initiative for part-time courses.

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