asked the Minister for Education what is the per million figure of Irish nationals in receipt of university education.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - University, Secondary and Vocational Education.
54.
The number attending the university at any given time is between 3,000 and 4,000 per million of population.
Is Queen's University included in the assessment?
No; universities within the State.
55.
asked the Minister for Education what is the total number of places available in the Republic at (a) university (b) secondary schools and (c) vocational schools.
The furnishing of the information sought by the Deputy would involve the making of a complete up-to-date survey of all the accommodation available in universities, secondary schools and vocational schools. The expenditure of time and labour involved in this would not, I feel, be warranted, particularly as an ad hoc survey could readily be made in any individual area, if circumstances required it.
Would the Minister not agree that this would appear to be fundamental information which he should have at his disposal? If he is going to try to bring in any kind of scheme or system, he must know the size of the problem he is dealing with and in order to know the size of the problem he would need to have this figure.
The problem is that there is an inadequacy which is gradually being met and which will be met more rapidly now, I hope. The provision of education for children should be by areas as there is an uneven distribution of population. The area survey would be the answer to that.
Even if the Minister were to do it by area survey, surely the total shown by the area surveys would give the figure I am asking for.
The problem should be met by areas and not as a theoretical national problem. The practical approach would be the needs of the children in each area.
I am not asking for any theories but for facts and the number of places. The Minister says there is an inadequacy and we want to know the degree of inadequacy. We want him to give us the figures so that we can assess the problem.
I do not know of any accommodation that is not taken up, so the actual attendance of the pupils would roughly represent the places available. There are 85,000 secondary school pupils, 28,000 vocational pupils, and 11,000 university students.