Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I would not be that dismissive. We all know from research that education during the lifespan of an individual is the key to his or her progression in terms of employment attainment. Education is the one guarantee of exit from poverty and of a decent quality of life. It advances a society collectively.

When I was Minister for Education and Science in 1999, we worked out what percentage of the population we wanted to reach tertiary level. That was ten years ago. We set about dramatically increasing the number of places, equipment and teachers at third level. We must continue to do that to be competitive. I accept that poverty-proofing is something which will feed into the debate and so on.

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