Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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That is a matter of concern. If possible, it would be good for the committee to write to the inspectorate and the NCCA in order to ensure that maximum hours are still being devoted to PE. I say this because it becomes a pressure valve when people get into the last ten or eleven weeks before their State examinations. The pressure is immense. Everyone is talking about their future and what they need to be studying. People are worrying about what they are not doing and what they are neglecting. An hour of running around and chasing a ball, being in the school gym or whatever is a great pressure valve to just break away from all of that. Other Members covered that in their questions, but it is a matter of particular concern for me.

In the time remaining, I want to go to Mr. Bermingham and Mr. Scattergood. I do not want to guess their ages, but they are a few years older than Mr. O'Connor and Mr. Carew. I remember when I was in second level, when people were in sixth year, if they spoke about an apprenticeship, somebody would say to them, "That is great, but why do you not try UL or NUIG first?" Parents were guilty of doing that. Indeed, teachers were also guilty of doing it. Everyone was saying, "Just go this way and you can think about it afterwards, but go off and get your four years on campus first". Do Mr. Bermingham and Mr. Scattergood think that is still a factor? Anecdotally, one hears a lot of youngsters saying that they want to be carpenters, blocklayers or plasterers but their parents will tell them to go up to Dublin for a few years. When they come out of college, they do not want to be hands-on. They want to be the project manager or the foreman. On many construction sites, most of the labourers are more than 40 years old. It is rare to have someone the same age as the witnesses on a site. What would they say to people who are in their leaving certificate years? Is it a factor that people are being lured away from that path and sent a different way? Is that skill set being lost?