On 9 August approximately 80 students on Dublin Business School's applied social care programme were sent an email notifying them the CORU board did not deem the programme as sufficient to meet its requirements to provide an approved qualification at this time. This came as a big shock to the students. I heard the Minister, Deputy Harris, on the radio on 31 August explaining the situation. He recognised that the main priority of the students was to try to get registered. I have received an email from Sarah Downing of the Fatima Day Care Centre. On Tuesday she received an email from Dublin Business School stating it had no further update to provide from Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, and detailing the transfer options being investigated. She has sought a transfer to another college. At this stage the students still do not know what is the situation. Will the Minister give us an update on it? What is he doing to intervene, especially with regard to the college as it is something in which he can intervene?

I thank the Deputy. She is correct that I was very concerned to hear about this situation. It relates to a situation where a QQI-accredited programme is still a valid programme but CORU, the independent regulator, has expressed concerns about its ability to put the students on the register. My understanding is that individual meetings were to take place between the college and students to look at the options. There were also refunds on the table. The Deputy is correct that people being able to progress their careers is the most important issue. I understood those individual meetings were under way and I will come back to the Deputy specifically on this. I will inquire today as to where this matter is at.