Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I take the point about an interdepartmental approach to this issue. All the evidence, however, suggests that if children are from a lower socio-economic group, their career prospects depending on where they are born are automatically lower than those of children from a middle-class or upper middle-class background who have the resources of private education and can get grinds. Is it a question too of encouraging schools to admit a mixed socio-economic group so that everyone rises on the one tide, not to mention giving the other supports needed for vulnerable children and students, to avoid the institutionalised approach of, for example, students from one socio-economic background going to DEIS schools? Having a mix of students from different cultural backgrounds makes for a better society. That is another issue we need to consider. There are some very good examples of schools trying to have that integration in Galway. We need to eliminate the class idea that children from a certain area whose parents have means will succeed and their ability will be irrelevant because they have funding. If we have a mix in schools and other institutions, we can ensure that everyone rises.