Mr. Peter Osborne:

I thank Senator Walsh and Deputy Ferris for their comments. The report is very stark in showing up the issues associated with educational underachievement. They are issues for both communities, not just the Protestant working class. Indeed, the report shows there is a significant and similar need on the Catholic and Nationalist side. Proportionately, however, the need within Protestant working class communities is even more stark.

Senator Walsh is correct that we must have a strategic approach, encompassing investment within the school gate as well as outside it. There is a need to look at how communities and families engage with education in schools and with other work within communities that can help to increase the desire of young people from Protestant, Catholic and other backgrounds to work on improvements for themselves by engaging in training and education. Within the school gate, there also is a need to consider greater investment in those areas where there is clear underachievement. We need to put more money into schools in disadvantaged areas, on both sides of the community. There are wider education issues around policy, which we probably do not have time to discuss here. The figures are very stark for Protestant working class boys. If we do not turn this around, there is potential for that group to take its frustrations out in many negative ways. We see some of that manifesting itself in east and north Belfast through other kinds of disputes.