Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin North Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Minister's concerns. If the only way for me to advance this is to withdraw the amendment, I will do so and discuss it before Report Stage. If we do not prescribe functions in legislation, however, then they just do not happen. There was much good work done by FÁS and decent people doing a good job on the ground, but there were other services and undertakings that the agency should have been charged with that just did not happen. The very idea that the fundamental further training agency of the State did not have an adult literacy policy was just bizarre, as has been pointed out by the National Adult Literacy Agency, NALA.

Now that we are radically reforming the delivery of further training programmes, not to knit a provision on adult literacy into this legislation is a lost opportunity. We have to state boldly in the legislation that we have an adult literacy problem and that SOLAS will be charged with developing, preparing and submitting to the Minister a strategy to raise adult literacy and numeracy levels. That is not too much to ask. This should be a box-ticking exercise in any sort of legislation of this nature. I understand the argument that such an inclusion may be over-prescriptive, and one wants legislation to be as fluid as possible. However, this is a wonderful opportunity for us to acknowledge and tackle the crisis in adult literacy, a crisis about which no one really wants to talk. Who wants to admit that 23% of our adult population are functionally illiterate? We have to admit to this and find a solution for it. This Bill provides the opportunity to do so.

The spirit of the debate around this Bill has been generous and inclusive. If the Minister can commit to us that we will return to this matter before Report Stage, I will accept the request to withdraw the amendment. However, I do not want him to underestimate how passionate I and other members feel about this issue.