Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. In answering on behalf of the Minister for Education, I apologise for not specifically referring to Cork, which was mentioned in the Deputy's question. In fairness, the answer outlined the rationale for the situation as it has existed to date. It sets out what will inform future plans for provision at primary level, as the Deputy highlighted. The key point is that the guiding principles are "that initial teacher education will be led by a small number of university-led centres of teacher education excellence and that each of these will have a critical mass to provide for good teaching, research and international co-operation, with structures to ensure meaningful collaboration across education sectors." I accept the Deputy's point about the difficulties potential students in Cork have with regard to travel. From its response, it is fair to say that the focus of the Department of Education is on having a structure that provides the best possible outcomes as regards what our education system needs, which evolves and changes over time.

The response is silent on whether there will be new and additional centres. The guiding principle is that there will be a small number of university-led centres. From my role in the Department of agriculture as Minister of State with responsibility for research and innovation, I know there is excellence in UCC. If the Department of Education is minded in the future to expand the number of centres, I imagine an institution like UCC would be well placed to be included in that. I note the Deputy is asking that if additional capacity is to be provided, the relevant institutions be given a nod in order to have an opportunity to invest and prepare for that. I presume that would be done on an open basis and that, as with any tender process, everyone would have a fair crack at it.

I am trying to get across the policy considerations of the Department.

10 o’clock

There is complexity around planning provision for initial primary teacher education. There are a lot of changes in our demographics and population and what we need in terms of primary teacher allocation in future will change from what we need now. We need to take into account the policy objective to ensure initial teacher education is strongly connected with, and relevant to, the needs of the education system. The publication of the next technical report with supply and demand data will be an important next step in this regard. This is where the next window is for the likes of UCC and others.

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