Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said to the Senator last week, we do not own the policy in this regard. We are an agent which acts on behalf of the educational facilities, whether they be skills-based, Springboard, education and training boards, private institutions or educational institutions at second level, third level or thereafter. We are an income support for people who want to retrain through education. We are not the policy owners of our educational departments or institutions. The Senator thinks we do an awful lot more than we do. We pay income support to allow people to retrain so they can make themselves labour ready for the particular market in which they are interested. That is the sum total of what we do.