Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I must keep an eye on the clock because I will be raising a Commencement matter in the Seanad. I reckon I will cover what I want to say in the allocated eight minutes. It has been very refreshing to listen to all the students. Senator Pat Casey is an incredible advocate for the school and what they are doing. He shared with me a video that they put together, which is excellent. I commend them on that.

In terms of social innovators in general, YSI is an incredible movement.

It is so important all our young people, no matter where they are, have the opportunity to learn about social entrepreneurship and the importance of teamwork. I often think teamwork and collaboration is so important when we go into the world of work and no matter what we do, we cannot do it in isolation. Yet, when we are in school and marked in our State exams, there is nothing really to give the opportunity for that type of collaboration to be tested.

This particular committee has spent much time over the past two years looking at reform of the leaving certificate. This should be one of the areas in which we should be able to consider examination in some other way. It is such a big part of life and yet we are marked for going in and completing a paper in isolation. I am interested in general in comments relating to that.

That the witnesses have chosen this area is really important. I am very proud to be a member of this committee but I am also a member of the education committee for the Council of Europe and that is where 46 countries come together. There were 47 countries but after 24 February we booted out Russia because it was no upholding the principles of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. We have the opportunity to look at different areas that affect education. I was in Strasbourg last week and we spoke much about online communication and cybersecurity. With the permission of the delegation, I would be delighted to be able to bring this project to the attention of my colleagues and the secretariat so we can have a discussion with colleagues from Norway about the legislation and what difficulties they may have had. I note from the presentation that the UK tried to do this but was not able to bring it through. We must see what are the potential pitfalls.

The work done on body image and body shaming is very important. Every political party has a think-in every year and I happen to be a member of the same party as Senator Casey. Last year, after our think-in, an article was written that body-shamed and clothes-shamed a number of representatives, particularly women. There were six women named in that article and I was one of them, and we were slagged about what we were wearing. Some of the men, although they were not photographed, were mentioned as well.

A number of women contacted me afterwards because they felt it was a really bad message for young people and particularly young girls that politicians were being judged on what they wore as opposed to what they were saying or the key matters on which we were meeting. I want to give the witnesses some time to respond on that.

I love that Ms Sheppard finished by saying "love who you are" because it is such a strong message that cuts across everything. It cuts across gender identity, ethnicity and all of that. The projects that came in first, second and third place are really important. They concerned food waste, mica and menstrual disorders. We in the women's caucus have put much work into efforts against period poverty and it is in the programme for Government. I hope measures against it will be introduced in September.

Generally speaking, this is a wonderful programme and I wish all the witnesses well. Perhaps Mr. Rawson or others would like to comment on some of the remarks I made around value in marking exams that take in elements of collaboration and teamwork. I also asked if I could be given permission to bring this forward on a European level.