Fergal Browne (Fine Gael)

It is fair to say that 100% of B.Ed. graduates will end up teaching at primary level or in another area. I am sure that if a survey was conducted in the college of education and asked B.Ed. graduates why they were taking a course, they would respond by saying that it is because they want to teach at primary level. It is disingenuous to introduce the BA argument. I picked up Senator Fitzgerald's point about existing Higher Diploma in Education students who are going to do secondary school teaching.

To return to the contract element, the bottom line is that there are far more gardaí involved in areas other than policing — such as the security industry — where they use their training than there are teachers in other areas. Senator Mooney has spoken with a good deal of common sense. Perhaps the Government is following the Ryanair example where it has recently asked cabin crew to pay for their training. As far as I know, B.Ed. students are greatly subsidised by the Government in their training. The Government knows it will get a return on its investment as B.Ed. graduates will become primary school teachers. This surely proves there is an effective contractual arrangement in place.

I would like to see the figures for the number of graduates from the teacher training and Garda colleges for the last few years to determine what percentage has stayed specifically in the area their training prepared them for. It might be entirely different to what the Minister of State and Senator Ormonde have said.