Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Report Stage

 

12:10 pm

Photo of Sean BarrettSean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:


In page 3, to delete lines 14 and 15 and substitute the following:“ “education provider” means for the purposes of this legislation an educational institution in the State which provides a programme of education and training at levels 7, 8, 9 and 10 of the National Qualifications Framework;”.
I welcome the Minister back to the House. As I should have said before, I note that if amendments are made to the Bill when it comes before the Dáil, the legislation will come back to this House. That gives us a new context in which to examine the amendments before us.
Amendment No. 2 replaces the definition of an “education provider”, which means a person in the State who provides a programme of education and training, with the wording proposed in the amendment.
The Minister knows the concerns of the House that "person" is too loose a definition. Could it bring in the wrong kinds of people? I accept what the Minister said about the existing section 3. Amendment No. 2 is there as a suggestion, if it is of any value to the Minister as she brings the Bill to the Dáil and possibly back here. That is the spirit in which the amendment is offered. It is a tighter definition of an education provider than the current one.
Amendment No. 3 gives a definition of “higher education” as defined under the National Qualifications Framework. If those safeguards, to which many Members of the House have referred, are required, do we need the kind of drafting in those amendments to put forth what they are worth? They may be helpful to the Minister.

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