I am grateful to the Minister for coming to the House at this late hour. I draw his attention to a difficulty with post-leaving certificate courses in Portlaoise vocational school. In the academic year 1997-98, the school had 117 PLC students following seven courses. County Laois has no third level facility and it has the lowest level of third level participation in Ireland. The PLC courses have run successfully in recent years and have expanded and developed, so it is a pity the Minister has not allowed a further expansion this year.
For the next academic year, the school applied and received departmental approval for 16 PLC courses, one of which was an interesting and exciting new course in tele-services which attracts substantial additional funding. Some 295 students applied for places across the range of PLC courses. This has a staffing and funding consequence and I remind the Minister that in 1996 the school successfully appealed its allocation and the number of places was allowed to be in accordance with the applications. Extra staff is required, there is no great problem in finding space within the school, and almost 300 students have applied, so it is a pity the letter of approval from the Department to the chief executive officer of Laois VEC only approved 137 places. This position must be improved and I hope the Minister will allow the school authorities to develop these courses in accordance with many of his public utterances since taking office, in which he stated his commitment to increasing PLC places. Although the Minister appears to have capped the numbers in Portlaoise he has allowed for new centres in County Laois, and it is a pity the courses have been spread over the county rather than concentrated in the centre of excellence that is Portlaoise vocational school. I hope he will allow the school to continue to expand and give students a chance to remain in the rapidly developing county town rather than having to take courses elsewhere. A commitment is needed urgently, given that planning for the forthcoming academic year is well under way.