Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was sitting here, thinking to myself that I am of an age where I can remember very clearly the days in Ireland when girls in particular were let down and the boys had to be looked after in terms of education. In the recent past, we have had that experience, and not a very pleasant experience when we think back. We can be to the fore in demanding that greater efforts are made and moneys spent to afford people proper educational opportunities in their lives, particularly where there is abuse of females in the sense of them being second-class citizens when it comes to education, and where the boys are educated because they are seen as the ones who will get the jobs and the money.

When I was listening to the witnesses, I got frightened and I realised I am getting old because I can think back very clearly to my early teenage years, when it was acceptable that girls would not get the opportunity of going on after the intermediate certificate, and they were privileged even to get the intermediate certificate. We tend to forget our experience in this country and the tremendous value we got from changing so that people get a proper education, which made an enormous difference. We do not always appreciate it when getting older, but I begin to realise now how fortunate all of us in this country are that we had people who made sacrifices. I can remember clearly the efforts that had to be made to find the fees for secondary education, never mind third level education. People had to pay for secondary education and there were very few families in the 1950s and 1960s who could afford to pay because people were very poor and we were a very poor country.

Ireland got out of that situation, thank goodness. I believe we now have a moral responsibility to listen to what the witnesses are saying and to promote the need for awareness to give other people in other parts of the world the opportunity that we got. Many people of my vintage never got the opportunity, and women in particular did not get the opportunity. We had the vocational colleges, which gave the skills to people to have a trade and so on, but for girls in particular, there were very limited opportunities. I get frightened when I think of that now because it was very cruel. That is happening in other parts of the world. I feel the witnesses have woken me up to my moral responsibilities and that we should be out there, banging the door, so to speak, and insisting that everybody gets the opportunity.

Despite all the talk about equal rights and all of that, what is equal rights? If people do not get an equal right to an education, they have no rights. It is quite simple, when we think about it. Having lived through that period, I can appreciate the sacrifices that my parents had to make. We take so much for granted now that we have become lazy in terms of defending the rights of people to get a proper education and proper skills for work. We go on about opportunities, but if people do not have the basic skills for work, they are going nowhere.

When the witnesses speak of different parts of the world where they have experience, I get frightened that this is continuing to happen despite the wealth in the world today compared with even 50 years ago. The witnesses have awakened an awareness for everybody. I hope those in the Gallery, in particular the journalists, give this proper coverage to make people aware that this is happening next door to us and that people are suffering from a lack of opportunities. When we think of the wealth of the world, it is frightening that it is continuing.

I thank the witnesses for coming in, waking me up a bit and frightening me. There is an obligation on all of us to speak out about this. I genuinely thank the witnesses for being here and making us aware. I sincerely hope their advice and comments will get wider coverage because it is important that we are all reawakened to where we came from, certainly those of my vintage. We had very little in this country and it was a privilege to get secondary education, given the sacrifices people had to make. I thank the witnesses for attending. We tend to get lazy and take things for granted, with an "I'm all right, Jack" attitude.