Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and the Minister of State with responsibility for skills, research and innovation, Deputy Damien English, on their appointments.

How many people are in education on any one day in Ireland? How many of our citizens attend education from pre-school to adult education? How much money has been spent on the literacy and numeracy strategy to date? What evaluation has been made of it?

How much money has been spent on the reform of the junior cycle? We know what the political evaluation of this reform was because it generated a huge impasse in the last Minister's regime. This had a huge effect on the way people voted in the local elections. Objectively, how much money was spent? We know that 53% of the teachers are against the reform so far. What is the Minister's evaluation of it? Does she intend to revisit it in some way?

The question of how many young, middle-aged and older people are in education is very important. How many people are we educating on one day in this country, from pre-school through to mature education, adult education and so on?