asked the Minister for Education if degrees in hotel management have been conferred on four graduates of the Regional Technical College, Galway, in 1976.

The answer to the Deputy's question is "No".

Will the Minister state why these students have not been conferred with degrees as they were led to believe they would?

Because the university with whom they are to be linked has not, as yet, finished its discussion of the matters and has not arrived at any conclusions in that regard.

Is it not true that these students bought a degree in a poke because they were delivered only a diploma at the end of their course?

No.

Would the Minister be interested to know that I have here a paper entitled "Final Examination, B.A. Degree in Hotel and Catering Management: Subject, General Management Studies; Section, Management of Labour"? The dating is Tuesday, 8th June, 1976. That is the paper answered by those who pursued the course.

I would not dispute the facts as quoted by the Deputy.

Therefore, it was a degree in a poke, which turned out to be a diploma.

No, because in 1972 the course in question was advertised as a diploma course in hotel management.

Is it not true that the NCEA assessed and passed this course for a degree in hotel and catering management?

The Deputy knows the NCEA are not empowered to award degrees.

The point I am making is that up to and including June, 1976, the students who were pursuing this course were led to believe they were studying for a degree.

Anybody who had read the newspapers in relation to decisions of the Government in 1974 and later would have been under no illusion about the powers of the NCEA. They were often discussed here in the House.

Are students doing a course to pay more attention to hearsay and newspaper evidence than to the paper they are answering at the end of a four-year course in a reputable educational institution?

Because discussions are going on, I do not propose to add anything to what I have said.

Would it be possible for the Minister to say now that retrospective conferring of degrees will be possible?

I would not exclude the possibility but I am not in a position to offer anything firmer.

The students are very upset.