Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)

It is also important to look at the educational landscape in the mid-1990s. Many Members present will remember when the teaching unions asked for innovative schemes to enable teachers to take an extended career break or job-share because classes and schools were emptying rapidly as the demographic figures moved in the wrong direction. Thankfully, we are now benefitting from a resurgence.

One of the things done by the Government and its predecessor, of which I am most proud, is that it has underpinned the legislative landscape for education after years of neglect. For years we had been governed by circular letters from the Department of Education and Science and by that famous book known to some Members present, the Rules and Regulations for National Schools. There was no system of governance in the education system. Primary education and, to a lesser extent, post-primary education were the Cinderella of the system. The last innovative move in education had been made when Donogh O'Malley introduced free post-primary education for all.

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