Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Pat Doherty. We go back a bit in time.

The joint survey to which he refers was an initiative proposed by my Northern counterpart, Mr. John O'Dowd, MLA, and it responds to some of the matters about which Deputy Smith asked. There was an initial resistance from the Unionist side in Northern Ireland to it but I fully supported it. We undertook a survey of parents on either side of the Border, at 20 km for post-primary and at 10 km for primary, to see whether there was an interest in doing exactly what Deputy Smith stated, to offer parents, because of the arbitrary nature of the Border, the ability to send their child to a school of their choice on the other side of the Border if that is what they wanted. Frankly, the results were less than promising. I would like to offer it and see it happen.

I can link that matter to Deputy Smith's second question, which was about the small schools. It would be a way in which we could sustain the viability of small schools in rural areas, by allowing children from, for example, the reformed church tradition in the South to travel to reformed church schools in the North and vice versa. Perhaps residents in the North, if there was a gaelscoil south of the Border, would be able to access that. The principle is removing any barrier that exists and then enabling parents to simply make that choice themselves.

As Deputy Ferris referred to it, I will be trying to move this at the October meeting, which will be held in Armagh, to try to advance it. It is not threatening. We had to assure people that it was not some kind of hidden agenda and it was only to facilitate parents. We are doing it pragmatically in the area of health. Altnagelvin Hospital, for example, regularly accepts patients from across the Border. I cannot see any difficulty. If the parents are left in charge and if they want to make the choice to send their child in any direction, then it is a matter that should be facilitated rather than prevented.

The question of the A levels is a problem. The Central Applications Office, CAO, system in the South, which is the college admissions office, is owned and controlled by the seven universities. It was set up in the late 1980s or early 1990s. They have offered participation to all of the other educational institutions, including Griffith College which is a private college, so that pupils finishing second-level school fill out their CAO form in the months of January and February.

The CAO grades leaving certificate results alphabetically according to the grades A1, A2, etc., and it is according to these grades that points are awarded. We have referred the matter in question to the CAO already. It was referred by a North-South enterprise working party because complaints were made in the North about the fact that an A* is not being accorded the value it should get in the CAO form. I will be raising this with the CAO again. We are talking about transitions to determine whether there can be an increase in the value. We are being told by Northern Irish students that the full value of their educational achievement is not being properly recognised by the CAO system in the South. Hence, there is a very low take-up. There are many more southerners going to study in the North than there are northerners coming to the South. It is claimed this is one of the factors responsible.

Deputy Smith raised the question of a common curriculum. There are no proposals on this at present and none has been suggested.

With regard to skills shortages and co-operation, I am publishing today my response to the Higher Education Authority's survey of third level educational institutions' reformation. There is a reference therein to better co-operation between the North and South in the area of third level provision and access. The next phase of the overall study will show that we need to achieve better value for money, eliminate duplication and waste within the system and have better co-operation between colleges within the South. However, I would like to see better co-operation between colleges on an east–west basis also. I hope that will happen.

Deputy Ferris referred to child poverty. It hardly comes as a surprise that all the studies point to the fact that deprivation in the home contributes significantly to deprivation in educational achievement. By the time many young people go to primary school, they carry disadvantage into the classroom. The DEIS programme, which has been in operation for some years, is an attempt to deal with this by giving extra resources to the affected schools and by having a more favourable allocation of teachers per pupil than is the norm. The schools are inspected in a different way from others. They must prepare educational programmes. In many cases, they do achieve good outcomes relative to their starting point.

At a recent ESRI conference I attended, reference was made to improving the quality of the preschool ECCE year. I acknowledge we are discussing this in the context of the controversy over a crèche. I hope that, in the context of SOLAS, the body replacing FÁS in the field of further education, money can be spent on upskilling people who work in preschool year facilities to level 5 on our national framework of qualifications. The objective is to improve the quality of preschool education. This is not to be confused with the minding of children for parents at work. The latter is a different phenomenon.

I believe I have answered all the questions. If I have not answered one, I apologise.