I presume the Deputy is referring to the one-year full-time degree course which the National University of Ireland, Galway is offering to students who have successfully completed the nursing registration-diploma programmes.
The position is that successful completion by a student of the three-year nursing registration/ diploma programme leads to registration as a nurse with An Bord Altranais, at which point he or she will become eligible for employment as a nurse. Since a degree in nursing is not a requirement for registration as a nurse and subsequent employment, such a qualification would be an optional post-registration qualification. A student who successfully completes the three-year diploma programme and who wishes to undertake a fourth year of full-time study leading to the award of a degree in nursing would, therefore, be responsible for making his or her own arrangements, including the payment of course fees. I am not in a position to provide funding for such a course.
In accordance with a recommendation made by the Commission on Nursing, I have established a nursing education forum to prepare a strategy for moving pre-registration nursing education to a four-year degree programme in time for the intake of student nurses in the year 2002. The commission makes it clear in its report that "No third-level institute or discipline should commence the programme prior to the agreed date." In making this point, the commission was concerned that for a third-level institute or discipline to do otherwise "would result in a recurrence of many of the difficulties encountered in the transition to the registration-diploma programme".
