Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh ár n-aíonna agus gabhaim buíochas leo as a bheith linn. On that last point, I agree with Professor Hegarty there is certainly much more we can all be doing to try to generate a love of our first language in the country. We all understand incentives as well. Perhaps if a certain mastery of Irish were a requirement for progress within academic administration, and indeed if we were to go back to a rule around a certain mastery of Irish being necessary for advancement within the Civil Service, that might help as well. I do not think we should put it all down to the failure of the education system to engender a love of Irish, because it did not fail in every situation.

Returning to today's core business of leaving certificate reform, I wish to begin by suggesting a couple of principles I think we all agree on. One is that the individual learner and his or her needs should be placed at the centre of any redesign of the senior cycle. The second principle is the leaving certificate must be a fair measure of student accomplishment and achievement on all aspects of his or her learning during his or her years in senior cycle. If there is a third principle, it might be we must take the needs of industry and our country into account. If there is a fourth, it might be that the needs of academic administration and colleges, that is, their commercial and administrative needs, while important, must come in at that point in the pecking order of concern because we must serve the higher principles.

It is with that in mind I propose the first point. Surely if we are talking about a student-centred experience, we should be interviewing all candidates for college rather than treating them as mere CAO numbers? It happens to a degree with art and teacher training. There is no problem with there being a minimum requirement of points, let us say, for certain courses, but I heard what Mr. Miley had to say and, nothing to him personally, it sounded like a vested interest argument to be talking about resources and duplication. If it is going to be as student-centred as we say, should we not start that decoupling process by making it a requirement that people are interviewed for a college place?

The third level institutions are going to have them for the next four years so it would seem to be a worthwhile investment in people and in the process. I put that to Mr. Miley and the other witnesses.