Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Clarke and I appreciate her personal engagement on this issue. More than 10,700 places have been provided by State-funded providers. There are 1,800 places with a private enterprise. With regard to the point made about fees and the difficulties with them, I was very pleased in budget 2024 to announce that, for those taking a postgraduate course in teaching, a bursary of €2,000 will be made available to them. I appreciate what Deputy Clarke has said with regard to students needing to see it so they can be it, and this is referenced consistently in the House. They need to see diversity. We have diversity in our classrooms and we need to see diversity in those who teach and those who work in SNA positions in our classrooms. I commend the excellent work being done by many of the providers. I had the pleasure of attending on two consecutive years the graduation at Marino College of Further Education. Over those years hundreds of students graduated, all from a diversity of backgrounds. This is only a positive in education.

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