Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Bailey and Ms Phelan for coming before the committee today, and I thank Ms Bailey for her presentation and for expressing the issues so clearly. I commend NALA on its great work and hope that it continues to make progress. I know it strives for advances to be made in adult literacy and numeracy levels.

I would like the delegation to comment on a couple of issues. As Ms Bailey mentioned at the end of her presentation, NALA believes it would cost €50 million for the Government to provide a guarantee of support to all adults with less than a level 4 qualification to go back to learning and to provide an intensive basic education course at level 3. She stated that we need to boost the current adult literacy budget to at least €50 million. Can NALA give a breakdown of that figure? Obviously, courses must be provided.

Do the witnesses envisage that particular supports will be provided to those who will be participating in it? Could they comment on the particular difficulties being encountered by part-time students who are trying to access maintenance grants and supports, such as the back to education grant, in respect of the part-time courses they are doing? Many of the supports that are provided at the moment benefit full-time participants only. That can be a particular problem.

I was reading this morning about the latest OECD Education at a Glance report. I think it was published yesterday. The report indicates that 98% of pupils in Ireland are now completing second-level education. This compares with a figure of 85% internationally. That so many younger people are going through the education system at the moment is a demonstration of the tremendous progress that is being made. We are now seeking to target those who were failed by the education system in the first place. It is good to see that strong progress is being made to ensure that our education system equips people with basic numeracy and literacy skills and with opportunities to progress their education.

Ms Bailey suggested that the further education system is not meeting labour market needs at the moment. I ask the witnesses to elaborate on their thoughts on this matter.