Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I completely agree with Mr. Djankov. I could never understand the focus in our education system on cramming in as much information as possible, only to vomit it back up in examinations. That has never made sense to me and it definitely makes no sense in the context of this report. We need to be facilitating a love of learning in our young people and an ability to engage in complex problem solving rather than focusing on rote learning. We must wake up in that regard.

We must look at the finances of the world or closer to home, at the ECB and at our national Government. A so-called rainy day fund is being set up here in Ireland. While there is some merit in that, would it not be better to invest that money in human capital, especially in the context of lifelong learning and early stage education or to address issues like homelessness? Given that there are thousands of children living in hotels and more than 10,000 people homeless in this country, putting money aside in a rainy day fund instead of investing it in those children and in all of our children does not make sense, even in purely economic terms.