Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We can all talk about reform but there has to be an appetite for that. Do the witnesses feel the Department of Education has the appetite for real reform and will do the reform needed? We are now post Covid. Over the past 18 months, everybody spoke about the leaving certificate needing reform. I do not think the appetite is there in the Department of Education and I am disappointed in that. The NCCA report is coming out and I am disappointed the Department has not published that. It would make our job an awful lot easier here if it was published. I plead with the Minister to publish the report. It would give the witnesses a greater understanding of the page the NCCA is coming off, what it is talking about and what direction it feels the reform is coming in. I do not want to put the witnesses in a fix but I ask them for their genuine feelings. Do they think there is a real appetite in the Department of Education? Is there the same appetite that was there for junior certificate reform?