Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That testimony was incredibly powerful and goes to the nub of the issue. I respect that we have been given a lot of figures here today, but the figure that tells all is that of the very low completion rate in school. Until that is equal for all, we are failing.

I noticed that there are 8,309 students in primary schools and 3,370 in secondary schools. Unless there has been a huge demographic shift, because primary school is eight years long and secondary school is six years long, one would expect that there would be 8,000 children in the secondary schools, give or take. Yet, there are 3,370 of them there. Therefore, from the time they go into secondary school, there is continuous attrition. I take it that before they bail out of school they have already half fallen out of the system. The witnesses might address the points that Senator Flynn raised, which I think are very important. She has an advantage over us, which is that she has walked the walk, lived the experience and fought her way through the system. It should not be a question of fighting one's way through the system.