Further and Higher Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-29
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

Yes, that is fair. I think 193 students are enrolled in PATH 4 phase 2. The original target or expectation was that it might hit 160 students, so it has gone well beyond that, which I am delighted to see. They are running across 11 different programmes. I will not list them out but there is a reasonably good spread geographically and they include the technological universities and the traditional universities right across the board, with multiple institutions participating. The way in which those courses or colleges were identified and chosen followed a competitive call for proposals. The Deputy asked how this was decided. There was a PATH initiative under strand 4 whereby an independent expert panel was commissioned to say which of these applications should be supported and, following a competitive call, these 11 were chosen. The courses are typically between one and two years in length. I hope this does not need to be said but I will just say it anyway. The courses are free and there is no charge for participation. There was a significant consultation across many Departments. The National Learning Network, SOLAS, the Irish Universities Association, the inclusive national forum, Down Syndrome Ireland and many others were also consulted in devising the courses and the allocations.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:34+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-29