116 Mr. Barry asked the Minister for Education the discussions, if any, that have taken place between her Department and the boards of regional technical colleges to give regional technical colleges independent status to authenticate their own degrees and diplomas rather than the current NCEA authentication practice; her views on the case being made; and whether she intends to introduce legislation to give effect to this proposal. [12954/96]

There have not been any formal discussions between my Department and the governing bodies of the regional technical colleges about changes to the current certification and validation arrangements for the regional technical colleges.

The White Paper on Education indicated the Government had approved the establishment of Teastas, the Irish national certification authority, and that its remit would include responsibility for the development, implementation, regulation and certification of all non-university third level programmes.

Teastas is to advise me on the single integrated framework of certification that would be required for all education and training outside of the universities. When I have received advice from Teastas, I will take decisions on it and effect the necessary steps to implement those decisions.