Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

Perhaps that is a subject for another day. We need to adapt the secondary education system. We need to improve the links between the pre-primary, primary and post-primary sectors. That might make the education system sound like a factory farm but being aware of the bigger picture should not be a restraint or constraint. We need to acknowledge that our economy needs employers and employees.

I recognise the plight of prospective college students. I accept that we may have many mature students, some of whom are people who have lost their employment. I commend the Government on programmes such as the initiative for unemployed people in the higher education system, the strategic innovation fund and lifelong learning and upskilling. I am aware of the role of the website, www.bluebrick.ie, and encourage those who have not investigated it to do so. In my local area, Letterkenny Institute of Technology has been flexible in adapting to the needs of its students and the unemployed. As I said at the outset, we have to consider our strengths as an island. We need to think beyond our boundaries. We should work with Northern Ireland Ministers like Reg Empey, MLA and Caitríona Ruane, MLA. As Minister for Employment and Learning in the North, Mr. Empey is responsible for lifelong learning which is treated separately from primary and secondary education. I am not sure that is the most constructive way of going about things although I do not want to tell the authorities on the other side of the Border what they should do.

I have been approached by a mature student who is attending an access course at NUI, Galway. When the person in question started the course, they thought they would be allowed to retain their back to education allowance, but that seems to be changing. People who were given the back to education allowance after they decided to take a course when they were in a position of disadvantage should not have that allowance taken from them. If one is already in the system, one might have a reasonable expectation of being able to continue one's course specifically because one is supported by the back to education allowance. I would like to think that the current approach to this matter can be reviewed and the small cohort of people who are in this position can be accommodated.