An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-24
============================================================

Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel

I echo Senator McCormack's request for a full debate in this House on domestic and gender-based violence. Such a debate is long overdue.
I want to talk about a different issue. Last week, I had the privilege of welcoming a group of learners from the Sligo and Leitrim community training centres to Leinster House. There are more than 31 community training centres across the country. They cater for young people whose needs were not met in school or else school was unsuitable for their needs. These learners engaged actively when they came here on an educational tour. I commend the staff of Leinster House on the brilliant job they always do in making people feel so welcome. These young people, along with others, engage in different forms of education in training centres and via Youthreach and similar programmes. Traditional schools did not meet their needs, including their material needs. The payment of a training allowance of up to €250 a week, plus additional money for accommodation or travel, is a major incentive for young people who wish to continue with their education.
Upon graduation at level 3, which is equivalent to the junior certificate, or level 4, which is equivalent to the junior certificate applied, many students want to progress to a level 5 or level 6 qualification at a PLC college. However, because many of them are still under the age of 16, they find themselves cut off from this level of support and are unable to access social welfare supports such as jobseeker's allowance, which would alleviate their financial position. Instead, they find themselves reduced to an under-18 level of payment of around €45 a week or they have to apply for a SUSI grant, which is much less generous in its monetary value. Even at its highest rate, it is just €7,936 per year, which is €152 a week - a significant drop from a training allowance. Who would be able to cope with the loss of that income, especially in families where the parents might not be able to provide additional support to students at home?
What often happens is that when students finish their level 3 or level 4 qualification they want to stay in education because they are getting the training allowance but they are not able to progress to level 5 because they would lose a significant amount of money. It is hard for young people to get meaningful work at the moment. We want to keep people in education for as long as we can.
The Sligo Community Training Centre has recommended that a different option would be available that is also available in the Cavan Institute. I refer to a PLC access programme. Instead of going around in circles doing a level 3 course and then a level 4 course within the same training centre, they could do an access course for one or two years that would help them to transition to a PLC course. That would not only address their learning needs and be specifically tailored to them but it would also help with their financial situation.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-24/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-24