Jerry Buttimer (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Nelson Mandela once stated that education is the most important weapon we can use to change the world, and he is right. Education is important and the purpose of the education system, if it is to be successful, must be to create future thinkers and entrepreneurs. The system must also be underpinned by professional, competent teachers, as is the case here.

The cynicism evident in parts of the Sinn Féin motion beggars belief. The text does not set out a roadmap for funding education, nor does it provide a clear pathway to provide the €8.5 billion the Government must find for education and skills expenditure.

Some 75% of the Department's budget goes on pay and pensions and will not be touched. However, we have a Minister who is committed to reform, to innovation and to ensuring that education remains pivotal to the country's recovery.

Like Deputy O'Brien, I attended the INTO meeting in Cork on Monday night. I commend the teachers, parents and members of boards of management who spoke at what was a very difficult meeting for them. They expressed their concerns about the pupil-teacher ratio and their conditions of service. In articulating their concerns and fears there was a great sense of commitment by the men and women who spoke which underscores the highly professional people we have at our disposal.

There is great concern over class sizes. As a classroom teacher for 16 years, I know that class sizes matter. A classroom is a compendium of the life of the community in which we live. There are bright pupils who must be allowed to prosper, students who are academically challenged and who must be nourished and nurtured, and there are moderate or average students, like me, who need to be pushed and cajoled. That is why it is important to maintain class sizes. Within that school environment there is a huge opportunity to build the creative people, who, as the Taoiseach has said, can make this country the best small country in which to do business.

Our challenge is to marry the schoolteacher, such as those who spoke at Monday's meeting and articulated their fears and concerns, with the child who comes into that classroom full of life and energy, looking forward to a world where he or she can be that Irish person living within Ireland. That is the challenge we must face when we speak about 1916 and 2016. It is about ending the scourge of education and ensuring that our educated have a career pathway at home. We should not need to send people abroad to work when they can be here where they can have education which is centred upon themselves as a student. Child-centred education is what we are about.

It is important that the motion focuses the mind because it is about the child and the student. At the same time it is about ensuring we have an education system that is fit for purpose. We have a Minister who will be innovative, will challenge and will pursue new and creative reform in the curriculum. Tonight's motion, as with previous Sinn Féin motions, does not present any alternative, which is disappointing. Given what that party does in the North, it is ironic that there is no counterproposal from Sinn Féin.

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