Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I am extremely disappointed by that dishonest response. It is not good enough to blame PISA for this. The vast majority of the 550 schools participating in the initiative do not face problems with numeracy or literacy. Stop trying to pretend that we are getting rid of a good scheme in order to introduce a broader literacy and numeracy programme. That is the kind of dishonesty that drives people mad. All the official speak dressed up in this response is just that. It is stupid, wrong and dishonest to end the initiative. The Minister needs to cop himself on. Last week he tried to argue that he never bought a German car in German to justify a claim that we do not need to teach German in our schools.

What the hell is going on in the Minister's office or in the Department? The initiative is no longer a pilot scheme. These schools showed initiative and they were not concerned about curriculum overload. The Minister of State should not bring up PISA, in which regard different issues arise. It appears that the Minister wants to use PISA as a cover to dump on education, teachers and standards. We are well aware of the issues that affected PISA outcomes, such as dramatic changes in the population and the number of non-English speakers who have entered the education system in the last decade. This is a dishonest approach. The €2.5 million involved supported 550 schools which showed initiative in introducing children to languages such as Italian, Spanish, French and German. All of us know that if children are introduced to learning at an young age they will benefit as a result. It a disgraceful educational and cultural decision and it is crazy from an economic perspective.

The Minister of State will speak about exports and markets. Do we not know that Spanish is spoken by half of the world, that Germany is the biggest importer of Irish pork and that France is a significant consumer of Irish seafood? As far as we are concerned, we do not give a damn whether young children learn French, Spanish or Italian. This is a very dishonest response and it is time to stop insulting people with arguments of this kind, camouflaging what the Minister of State is up to and trying to give other reasons and rationale for incorrect decisions. The decision should be reversed and it is within the capacity, and the budgetary capacity, of the Department to do so. Is there an agenda of which we are not aware? Was someone in the Department out to get this initiative? The logic of what has been decided escapes me and it needs a genuine review by the Minister of State.

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