Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about a literacy and numeracy level, not about awards and merits and medals. We are obsessed with awards, merits and medals in this country, and with academic versus vocational education, when vocational education is the very thing on which the Government depends now for apprenticeships and to get people back to active hands-on work. I absolutely agree with Mr. Vaughan that this is a general difficulty across the country, not specific to this issue.