Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I do not for a moment underestimate how deeply the Deputy feels about this and I will work with him as best I can and meet him as far as I can in the legislation to address his concerns.

We can have something that is a statement of intent and which symbolises the State's response to a challenge that exists in society. If the Deputy believes that statement of intent is vital within the terms of the legislation, we will see whether that can be accommodated. The Minister and I readily acknowledge the challenge that exists in terms of adult literacy and we share the Deputy's passion and concern that the State should respond to that challenge. The challenge concerns how we can best legislate and develop a strategy to respond to it in the future. In doing that, we must ensure we do not restrict our opportunity to respond in a meaningful and effective way in the future. I am sure we can find a middle ground here and I will work with the Deputy to do so.