Mary Butler (Waterford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ms Regan is completely right in what she is saying because I attended St. Declan's Community College in Waterford, which is a vocational education committee, VEC, school. My 13 year old daughter started there a couple of months ago and her favourite subject is technical graphics. I was absolutely blown away by that because she is an academic child. She will kill me now if she hears me but she just liked technical graphics and if she had not gone to that school she would never have gotten the opportunity to do it.

There should be a broad range of subjects in schools. Academic subjects are not for everyone and a child should be guided at a young age to let them know that they do not always have to go to university or an institute of technology, that they can take on an apprenticeship. As I said, Ms Regan's comment on learning while working and getting paid was brilliant and it is a great byline.

I thank the witnesses for coming. I know they had a long wait but it is our job to put the other guests who were here through the wringer and we have to get as many answers out of them as possible. We will be making recommendations and launching our proposals and if the witnesses are available on the day we would be delighted to have them back to launch it with us.