Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will address one or two of the points made. The line committee, the committee that would have competence in relation to content, etc., would be the Joint Committee on Education and Skills. We are currently engaged with that committee on some of the issues highlighted.

One of the points that threw itself up in lights for me was the issue of how the content within the Civic, Social and Political Education, CSPE, subject relates to the role of the Joint Committee on Public Petitions of Parliament. That is a major takeaway for me.

The petition remains open. We will take on board some of the points the petitioners have made here today. We will engage further with the stakeholders involved. If the final outcome of this is that there is no change or the status quoremains, what is most important, both for me and for the members, is that the petitioners are here before an Oireachtas committee, they have taken the time to put forward a petition and they have impressed us with their depth of knowledge in terms of answers that they have given to questions. In the first instance, any of their cohort who are looking at this, anybody throughout the country, any teacher worth his or her salt, will use this segment of their submission as a teaching tool to educate their fellow students about what they, too, can do on issues of public concern and they now have the ability to come forward and make submissions to a petitions committee.

If they do not get the desired outcome, I would say: "That's life." One will accept the results, one way or the other. It may go your way and it may not. However, the fact that they have been here before us today is as, if not even more, important because it clearly signals to us that there are excellent young people out there. Like Deputy Dara Murphy, I do not want to patronise the petitioners in any way but I am not sure whether I would have had the confidence when I was going through my junior certificate if somebody had invited me in to the petitions committee or any committee of the Dáil to make a submission. I am here as a Member of the House but on a personal level, I do not think I would have had the confidence to do what they have done.

We are very grateful to the petitioners for coming before the committee today. If I may say, the Loreto ethos, with which I have personal interaction in my own part of the world, is alive and well. The petitioners are fine examples, not only of that ethos but of the best what we have to offer, and what the future holds. If four articulate students such as these can come before us and hold themselves with dignity in front of an Oireachtas committee, they are up there with the best of them. I thank them very much for being here.

We wish the petitioners well in their continuing studies. I hope that everything went or will go well for them, in terms of the junior certification examinations. I am hoping that in life everything will go well for them because they have been a fine example of the best that we have to offer in this country, and I mean that sincerely.

I will adjourn the meeting now. We will make refreshments available to the petitioners afterwards. We have a little pack to give them as well, just as a little gift. We hope that there are hundreds, and possibly, of students who will look at this. We hope that teachers will look at this and use it in the best possible way as an example of what the Committee on Public Petitions is available to do for people. I thank our guests for being here. We are delighted to have them.