Maeve O'Connell (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)

I welcome that the Minister is trying to understand the behaviours. One of the potential problems of the CAO system is that it is easy. Students fill in their top choices and then they are done. They may not be considering the other options because they are much more difficult to navigate. I will give a specific example. Only about 12% or 14% of students study accounting at leaving cert but there may be many more who have an interest in it. They can do an accounting technician apprenticeship, they can go to college and study, or they can do the 12-week pathways course. However, if they have an interest in accounting this will not be presented to them in one place. Therefore, it is quite likely they may pick the wrong one which actually does not suit them. Somebody with the potential to become a full accountant may start their journey the wrong way and thus a more suitable path ends up closed off for them.

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