asked the Minister for Education if there is any financial aid given to girls who attend a college of physical education particularly in view of the assistance given to boys in the same career.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Physical Education.
305.
The special assistance given to boys this year was due to the fact that there are at present no training facilites for them available in this country and that initially their training involved their going abroad. On the establishment of a men's training college here the whole position in relation to both boys and girls can be reviewed. Should a scheme of training grants be framed it could only be on the basis that entry to the colleges would be by way of open competition.
Is the Minister not aware that the present situation created by this provision for boys is discriminatory against girls, if I may reverse the position I was talking about a few minutes ago? Is he not aware that what he has done is to provide effectively free education for boys in this respect while making no provision for girls? While we congratulate the Minister on what he has done in relation to boys, does he not agree it is quite unfair that boys should now have free education while girls will have to continue to pay the full amount?
The Deputy will accept that if we were to formulate a scheme of this kind it could only be by way of open competition. These were scholarships awarded to the boys to go to the college in England. In relation to the girls' colleges it would not be possible to make scholarships available to them unless we had a similar type interview, test, or whatever else it might be, for them.
Will the Minister not institute such a test and remove this discrimination about which I have had representations myself? Does the Minister not think it is unfair to provide scholarships for boys and to make no such provision for girls?
Until now we had no way of training young men and that is the reason why we introduced this scheme.