asked the Minister for Education if he will establish a regional technological college in Cavan town.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Cavan Technological College.
10.
Mr. R. Burke
The regional technical colleges are intended to serve the needs of a region of reasonable size. In this connection County Cavan falls within the areas which may be served by the colleges in Dundalk and Sligo and there are no plans for the establishment of another college in Cavan town.
Is the Minister aware that whereas there were plenty of applications for scholarships in the Cavan area other vocational education committees had scholarships which were not taken up and, arising directly out of this question, would it not be advisable to have a regional technical college in an area where all the scholarships will be taken up?
Mr. R. Burke
The question of scholarships is a separate one. I have no intention of raising this to the status of a regional technical college because I think the area is well served by Sligo and Dundalk. I envisage no change in that situation.
If the Minister looks at the map he will agree that Cavan is as far as it can be from Dundalk and Sligo. There is no other county further away from its regional headquarters than Cavan is in all those matters, including technological education.
I want to help the Deputy to elicit further information but he is now engaging in argument.
I am asking the Minister is he aware of the distance between Dundalk and Cavan town and between Cavan town and Sligo. Indeed, some pupils are opting for Athlone which means that the people are not satisfied with the accessibility of regional technological colleges.
Mr. R. Burke
The distance between the part of Cavan which is in the area of influence of Dundalk regional technical college is no greater than that in other regions, for example, Kerry and Cork. I am aware that the county of Cavan for regional technical college purposes is divided and the western part is in Sligo and the other part is in Dundalk.
Cork is one place where they are not taking the scholarships.