Mr Fintan Coogan, FG Education spokesman, called for research into the high first-year drop-out rate from regional technical colleges.
It was possible students did not know what courses they were doing, said Mr Coogan.
He said a marine biology lecturer told him he met a student who had signed up for a course on aquaculture but said he could not understand "how it could be done to fish" as he "thought he was studying acupuncture, not aquaculture". Mr Coogan was speaking on the Bill establishing the Blanchardstown Institute of Technology, which was passed.