Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a question for the representatives of the Department of Education and Skills. We are arguing the point in regard to its document. If it argues that history is not a core, cohesive and central subject, we have nowhere to go. One has to argue it as a core, great, centralised, cohesive, extraordinary and major thought process in the education of young minds. If one argues that it is outside that, then we are only arguing about whether it should compete with other subjects. That cannot be the argument, because it brings us somewhere else. It has to be brought back to the centrality of what it is cohesively, internally and expertly. One cannot argue it with a veil of appreciation and a value system that one could throw over any subject. One has to bring it back in centrally. If that is not done, there will be a piecemeal approach, and it may be done in front of the television as a short course, which I am against for young people.