Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

The issues the Deputy raised are central. What is the nature of the problem? It is curious that the RAPID areas in this city are largely located cheek by jowl with the areas of the greatest opportunities in both education and employment anywhere in the country. The problem is not jobs per se as we would have understood it 30 years ago. People are coming from all over the country to take up jobs in Dublin. The big challenge is education and the educational attainments of people in RAPID areas, which are a good definition of the most deprived communities. These can range as low as 2% to 3% of the population getting a third level education. Creating all these fantastic jobs is no good because these people cannot get them. They cannot get through that gate, the gate being education, skills and training.

Life is full of dilemmas. How is it that in these areas of huge population near the universities and jobs only 2% to 3% of the population, and in some cases it is as low as 1%, get a third level education? Then there are places in other parts of the country, far from third level facilities, where 60% to 70% of the population get a third level education. The situation is full of ironies. That is the challenge. I have always believed that educational attainment is one of the keys to solving the problems discussed by the Deputy.

One must then ask why these people do not get the education. Is it due to bad schools? That is when one realises that there are family, lifestyle and social segregation issues, partly and largely due to bad planning whereby society was socially segregated, which has a huge effect on educational attainments.

See this speech in context