Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

When I was Minister with responsibility for the RAPID areas, I was told if I look at schools in the most socioeconomically deprived areas of Dublin where perhaps 20% go to third level, which is a crude measure - we could use any measure such as the number who wind up in prison - where there were not only individual outcomes to consider but also the effect of the community. It reinforces things in the school population and the aspirations of children and parents. Peer pressure made it more difficult for children to get on even if they wanted to whereas if I went to the leafy suburbs of south Dublin I find the opposite effect - the community effect was uplifting there. My experience of rural Ireland is that it replicates more the urban, middle class experience than the urban highly deprived area experience. If I am right, pushing people into highly deprived areas will weaken the human capital into the future. That is my point.