Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Any reform of our education system, which involves the reform of public services, must strike a balance between securing efficiencies and making the delivery more effective for learners and more rewarding for those who deliver the services. That must be a priority. The reform of education and training provision must not be exclusively focused on the expenditure side. Adequate provision must also be made for the implementation of the Bill in order that meaningful reform of education and training, which the Bill sets out to achieve, can be realised. This opportunity may not present itself for many years. We should consider this when we debate the Bill.

We must always have in the forefront of our minds the holistic approach we want our education system to take in the next number of decades. It is incumbent on us, therefore, to work together to ensure the quality of education needed to meet the needs of an ever-evolving society is always at the forefront of our minds. We will differ as to how we should best achieve this but we must not allow those differences to get in the way of our overall aim, which is a top quality education, training and further education system.

The changes that will be brought about by the Bill must be accompanied by a progressive overhaul of the curriculum. I know that work has started, with project maths and the introduction of the new junior cycle curriculum. It is also Sinn Féin's firm belief that the implementation of a renewed national adult education policy with well-defined outcomes must be central to the way we proceed.

In the face of spiralling unemployment, it has never been more important to have training and educational opportunities in place that give those who want to upskill an opportunity to return to the workplace. That is one way of empowering people. We must grasp the opportunity to implement the far-reaching reforms contained within the Bill. That is why Sinn Féin will be supporting its passage on Second Stage today.

The Irish education and training system has delivered services in an incoherent way because it has been operated by a range of providers. For example, although there are 450,000 people on the live register, there remain significant shortages in certain areas of industry. Much work remains to be done in providing qualified people for the IT sector and in improving multilingual skills. We are not meeting the demands industry places on us. We must address these skills shortages. We must ensure the education and training boards can provide the type of training and education that produces the skill sets necessary to sustain and grow existing businesses and to make the State more attractive for employers. This will mean developing training and learning to meet the growing demands of a number of areas, such as the IT, biopharma, food and agrifood sectors.

One of the strengths of the VEC system has been the extent to which VECs have identified with the particular areas in their geographical remit. This brings us back to the question of how many ETBs there should be.

There were differing opinions on that in the submissions on the heads of the Bill. The IVEA in its submission, for example, originally opposed the amalgamation of the VECs on the basis that it believed it would not be in the best interests of communities that were served by the current number of VECs to have a reduced number of ETBs. At the other end of the argument the Educate Together patronage body suggested that 16 could be too many and that the figure should be less than that. Whatever about the differing opinions on how many ETBs there should be, there was very little disagreement from all the stakeholders in their submissions that the general thrust of what was trying to be achieved was progressive.

The vast majority of the stakeholders saw the composition, if not the number, of ETBs as very much in line with what they are trying to achieve. That is one of the reasons I was a little surprised by the structure of the ETBs in the Bill. The previous speaker referred to the composition of the ETBs. When the heads of the Bill were published, many of the submissions focused on their composition. The Bill was an opportunity to address some of those concerns but, unfortunately and for whatever reason, which I am sure we will debate on Committee Stage, the Minister has decided to stay with what was already produced in the heads of the Bill. The challenge for all of us is to ensure that the people on the committees reflect the diverse needs, interests and skill sets of all the interested groups that are so integral to the make-up and functioning of the boards. That is something we will have to discuss again on Committee Stage.

Let us consider the issue of gender balance, which has already been mentioned. The Bill confers regulation making power on the Minister is respect of staff elections. It provides him with the ability to establish gender panels for those elections. However, it is does not require gender equality in the final appointments of the staff, which is something that must be addressed on Committee Stage, especially when one considers the fact that the legislation provides that the parents' group and the community representatives will be subject to gender balance. That should be extended to all aspects of the board.

Of similar importance, and this is something on which my party will focus on Committee Stage, is the need to provide a voice to adult learners in the new ETB structures. The role that groups such as the National Adult Literacy Agency, NALA, the Irish National Adult Learning Organisation or AONTAS and other organisations have played in giving a voice to adult learners must be incorporated into the ETBs. Given that there are only four community representatives on the board, we must ensure that one of those four provides a voice for adult learners. The Government's policies contain targets for increasing adult numeracy and literacy. However, as NALA points out, there must be a more collective and holistic approach to ensure the implementation of a more robust plan when it comes to the integration of numeracy and literacy into further education and training. With forward thinking and planning this can be done relatively inexpensively.

Consider the situation where somebody wishes to avail of further training and education by, for example, undertaking an apprenticeship to be a plumber. It is very important that there is some type of system put in place within those training and education courses which improves the literacy and numeracy of those availing of them. There is no point in somebody going on a training course to become a plumber if the person has difficulty understanding angles and measurements. The numeracy and literacy policy must be integrated into all of the training courses and into the further education sector at all levels. That issue must be re-examined. Undoubtedly, this legislation offers the opportunity to implement positive, reforming measures to ensure adult learners are represented on the boards. Not only should they be represented, but we also have a duty to ensure the necessary supports and measures are put in place to enable their voices to be heard at that level.

I am sure that much of the debate on Committee Stage will revolve around the composition of the boards rather than the scope and powers they will have. There is general agreement on the latter, if not the former. One submission to the committee emphasised the importance of the ETBs developing effective two-way communication channels with all the stakeholders. The ETBs will have a significant role to play as key partners in formalising structures for gathering local labour intelligence, for example, by identifying local labour skills which are critical to the creation and sustainability of local employment opportunities. This is particularly important for rural areas. They will have an important role in identifying the needs of particular towns, villages and regions, identifying the skill sets that are required and then tailoring the training and education courses to meet those needs.

We must work to ensure the ETBs have a common organisational structure in each region which fully supports the management and delivery of full-time and part-time learning programmes and learner support services. This will mean enhancing the current arrangements for co-operation between education and training boards and the business community. There must be very close correlation between what courses will be set and what the needs are.

There will be a number of challenges in the Committee Stage debate on this Bill, as I outlined earlier, but there are significant opportunities under this legislation as well. I appreciate the Minister's commitment to provide his proposed amendments in plenty of time to enable us to study them, and also his offer to provide further briefings on the proposed amendments if we require them before Committee Stage. We will probably avail of that. In conclusion, we will support the Bill on Second Stage and look forward to Committee Stage. There are a number of areas on which we wish to focus but there is no doubt that this legislation has the potential to be one of the most reforming legislative measures in the area of further education and training. We will work closely with all parties and none in the House to ensure that what is ultimately passed by the House does what it is meant to do.

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