I propose to answer Questions Nos. 14 and 126 together.
Post-leaving certificate courses, which are provided in schools and colleges outside the third-level sector, have constituted one of the significant growth areas in education in recent years. I am committed to supporting the development of this sector in a number of important respects. First, I intend to establish the National Education and Training Certification Board to provide a comprehensive framework of certification for all vocational education and training programmes, including post-leaving certificate programmes. This will build on the work already under way by the National Council for Vocational Awards, which has already started to provide national certification for a range of PLC programmes. Second, I am actively considering, in the context of the proposal for the abolition of tuition fees for third-level students, the abolition of all fees for PLC courses where they exist. Third, my Department is examining the most appropriate structural arrangements to provide for the ordered and co-ordinated development of post leaving certificate courses in the future. Subject to Government approval, I will be outlining these arrangements in the forthcoming White Paper on Education.
These initiatives demonstrate my strong commitment to support the structured development of post-leaving certificate courses for the future. As these changes are progressively implemented, I will keep under continuous review the question of the provision of maintenance grants to students on these courses. However, my priority at present is to address the issues I have set out.