Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Commissioner. I am sorry he is here when there is legislation going through the House and various committees are sitting, which means attendance is a bit low.

I congratulate the Commissioner on the 30 years of the Erasmus programme. It has been a wonderful programme. The Commissioner pointed out that in Ireland our students have benefited well from it. It is a tremendous programme but, as it moves forward, I would like to see it expand into the areas of apprenticeship in addition to academic study. We have to offer those seeking technical skills the opportunity to study abroad and learn the language of the country they are working in. I would like to see more work done on that. Coming from a teaching background, one of the things I feel is vitally important is that a teacher of language should actually train for a period in the country of the language they hope to teach. For example, one should train for a year in France if one wants to teach French or in Germany if one wants to teach German. I would like to see an Erasmus programme that extends to those who deliver academic programmes whether at primary, second or third level. I would like to see an opportunity for that. Perhaps a teacher who goes to France for a year to work and teach French in France could be replaced by a French teacher coming to Ireland to work and teach English in an Irish school. We need to look at that. One of the concerns we have as a result of Brexit is that there are almost 1.8 million people in the northern part of the country who have an entitlement to carry an Irish passport and as such are entitled to full European citizenship. In the event of Brexit being completed, access to Erasmus for those people will become an extremely important issue. While they will technically be in a third country, they are separated from their country of choice by geography. We must maintain access to Erasmus programmes for Irish passport carriers living and working or studying in the North of Ireland because by right they are Irish citizens.

Dr. Navracsics has responsibility for the area of education. I have become increasingly concerned in recent years by the level of focus on statistics. Statistics are useful for establishing whether a programme has been successful or unsuccessful. I worked in further education and I came through second-chance education, having returned to college in my late 30s. One of the things that concerns me is that when I returned to college in my 30s, the focus was on getting me in and getting me settled. Nobody ever questioned whether I would take an examination or not. The focus was on getting adults back engaging in the system. I became a teacher when I qualified and over the 25 years I was teaching the focus shifted to verifiable statistical information, for example, how many students started the course, how many modules they took and how many modules they passed. The success or failure of the programme was based on statistics. Whether we like it or not, for some people who return to education surviving the year in the system is sufficient. We must go back and look at the social side of education as well as the statistical side. I would like the Commissioner to try to put some money or grant aid aside to get away from the statistics and look at community based education or education for the sake of learning rather than education for the sake of examination qualifications.

The Commissioner mentioned the area of sport in his presentation. Sport and sporting activity is extremely important. There was a study carried out by some students from Kinsale Community School on the availability of sporting facilities in the country which showed the east-west divide in Ireland is stark. A school in the eastern half of the country is likely to have its own gymnasium and other sporting facilities. However, the further west one goes, the likelihood of finding these facilities in abundance is limited unless the school is a very new school or the parents have funded a gymnasium. Let us face it, gymnasiums are not high on the list for parents when it comes to education. They would rather put the money into other parts of education. This might sound like the pot calling the kettle black because I am a rather large man but one of the problems we have in Europe is the growing rates of obesity. Unless we get our children involved in sporting activities at a very young age the problem will be exacerbated over time. Perhaps through the good offices of the Commissioner, we could look at how we could assist countries that have limited access to sporting facilities to start developing them within their regions.

I am delighted to see that culture has not been left out of the event and that the Commissioner's focus is not on the big ticket events but on small towns and villages where everybody can get involved. We had a tremendous year in 2016 where every town, village and townland in the country became involved in the remembrance of the revolution. We are now coming into 2018 which is the centenary of women getting the vote. That will be a major cultural issue for Ireland and something to be celebrated. One hopes it will be celebrated in every village and townland in the country. Any assistance the Commissioner can give in that area would be very welcome.

I thank the Commissioner for taking the time to come here. It is always good to get Commissioners over from Europe to know they are alive and well.