John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 494: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will intervene on behalf of a person (details supplied) in County Sligo and have their application approved; if she will make a favourable decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26427/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I presume the Deputy is referring to an application for a place on a post-graduate programme for primary teacher training that is provided by a private college.

The college referred to by the Deputy is a privately-owned institution providing a privately-run course which has been accredited by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, HETAC. In order for the course to secure HETAC accreditation, the college in question complied with HETAC's quality assurance and validation requirements. The graduate diploma conferred at the end of this course is recognised by my Department for the purposes of primary teaching.

It is imperative that participants applying for the course meet the required criteria, which are common to all colleges of education that provide teacher training. Individual colleges have the responsibility of ensuring that these criteria are met by the applicants and that no exception is made in any individual case. Therefore, I do not have a function in the selection process and cannot intervene in this, or any individual case.