Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and thank Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill for sharing time with me.

I wish to relate some extra information. Last night I attended a meeting of senior academics and fellows in Trinity College Dublin at which there was great dismay that TCD could lose its connection with teacher training. Surely the highest ranking university could have no more important task than linking with the training of teachers. There is dismay and also confusion as to how this happened. How did friends fall out? It would certainly be the view of that body of academics that it would be a bad day for Ireland were this to happen. It is a very important job of any university to relate to people up to the age of 14 years in post-primary schools and any abdication of that role would be bad for Trinity College Dublin, the Church of Ireland College of Education and Ireland as a whole.