Deirdre Clune (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. O'Sullivan and his team for the report. I agree with all or much of it. The area I was struck by was education. We have heard before that we need an entrepreneurial strategy throughout our system. I am pleased that the deputation put it as the No. 1 recommendation because we need to turn our education system on its head.

I have been at parent teacher meetings and seen big queues for the teachers of English, Irish, mathematics and business studies but no one goes for the sciences or computer science. If the students are not getting encouragement at home, then when it comes to filling out their CAO form, they do not get it.

The committee heard an interesting presentation last week in the Bank of Ireland enterprise centre at the end Grafton Street by James Whelton. CoderDojo is a familiar name to all of us at this stage. I heard him speaking. I suppose I should have known it already but he talked about his points in his leaving certificate and said the system did not suit him at all. Yet now, he has been named as one of the top 30 in the world by the Forbes young entrepreneur council. It is a sign for all of us that our education system is simply not matching the needs or bringing them out. We need to bring change through our education system and it is important to start from a young age. Young people should be given a can-do attitude. This should apply even if it is a matter of young children who set up shop outside their front gate selling home-made cakes or whatever. This is what it is about: turning a few bob. I agree entirely with that.

Reference was made to commercialisation of research, a topic that comes up often.

The Minister of State with responsibility for this area, Deputy Sean Sherlock, refers to the technology transfer offices. What more can be done in that area? The amount of money to be spent there comes up constantly. What will we do with that money in Horizon 2020, the EU research project? Will we put it in the right place or just feed it to the researchers and not bring it out?