Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I propose to share time with the Minister of State, Deputy Tom Hayes.

I am pleased to have the opportunity to participate in this debate on the Government's priorities for the year ahead. I acknowledge and welcome the presence in the Chamber of the Sinn Féin parliamentary spokesperson on education and skills. When we entered government, I spoke about how Fianna Fáil had lost our economic sovereignty. When we exited the bailout last December, I felt for the first time that our sovereignty had been regained because of the actions of the Government. In the past three years we have taken many decisions, some of which have been difficult, but we have been committed and determined to make progress, day by day, week by week, to deliver real recovery. We resolved the promissory note issue and put an end to the bank guarantee. Instead of losing jobs, we created them - over 60,000 net new jobs last year alone. Unemployment is now at its lowest level since May 2009. We restored the national minimum wage and reinstated the joint labour committees, JLCs, which had been abolished by Fianna Fáil. The economy is now growing and steady progress is being made to reduce the number out of work. It is impossible to overstate the challenge that faced the Government when it entered office three years ago. Dire predictions were made - many of them by Members on the Opposition side of the House - that Ireland would have to default, that we would implement massive cuts to core welfare payments and that hundreds of schools and post offices would close. These and many other predictions proved to be wrong. Three years on, we have exited the bailout and are delivering real recovery for all of the people.

Not all of our achievements have been economic. Our record on social reforms is also one of which I am proud. After the failure of six successive Governments to legislate for the judgment in the X case, the Government had the courage to legislate to protect the lives of pregnant women. Our determination to focus on the real needs of children in society was shown by the creation of a new Department of Children and Youth Affairs and the Child and Family Support Agency. Gender quotas are being introduced to increase the number of women in the Oireachtas and we will fight and win a referendum on same-sex marriage to deliver equality for gay and lesbian couples.

In the world of education I am proud of the progress we have made since taking office. Five items of primary legislation have been completed in the past three years. FÁS no longer exists, having been replaced by SOLAS, an organisation that will oversee the modernisation and reform of the further education and training sector. A key objective of the sector will be to meet the education and training needs of the unemployed, providing high quality pathways to work. Some 33 VECs have been amalgamated into 16 local education and training boards, each with the scale and capacity to improve the opportunities offered to those out of work. We have created Caranua, the residential institutions statutory fund, to ensure the survivors of institutional abuse receive the care and services they need to live dignified lives. The various qualifications and quality assurance agencies have been merged to create Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, an initiative that was started by the previous Administration.

Many reforms have been undertaken within existing legislation. A national literacy and numeracy strategy is being funded and implemented and is making steady improvements to the literacy and numeracy levels of children and young people. The introduction of Project Maths, together with bonus points for honours mathematics, has seen a rise of over 60% in the number of leaving certificate students taking the higher level paper. Since 2012, 50% of the marks are now allocated for oral and aural Irish language skills at leaving certificate level. This has also led to a steady increase in the number of students studying at higher level.

A forum on patronage and pluralism in the primary sector was established just after I came into office and reported within one year. The parents of children in 43 towns have since been consulted on the types of school they would like to see available. In 28 areas where the population was static and there was no growth parents said they wanted more choice. I am working with the Catholic Church to make this a reality.

Other members of the Government have provided detail of many of our priorities for 2014 that will help to deliver real recovery. The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste have spoken about our determination to continue driving job creation and ensuring the recovery delivers for all of the people. The Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton, has outlined our ongoing commitment to creating pathways to work for all of the people and making sure those in work earn a living wage. The Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, has explained how the Government's jobs action plan will continue to create the opportunities necessary to deliver full employment.

The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform has spoken about the need during the next phase of our recovery to focus on improving the outcomes of public services, in addition to delivering improved efficiencies and accountability. The Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children, Deputy Alex White, as well as the Minister for Health, Deputy James Reilly, will deliver free GP care for all children under the age of six years during the term of the Government. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, and I will determine how preschool quality can be improved. All of these reforms and many more will be delivered in 2014.

Let me turn to my field of responsibility, education. My priorities for 2014 can be summarised under three themes: improving quality and accountability in schools; supporting inclusion and diversity; and creating opportunities for adults. I want to summarise some of the key policy developments I expect to deliver during 2014.

The junior certificate is being abolished and replaced with the junior cycle student award, JCSA, involving a new system that will see less of a focus on examinations and rote learning. It will provide for young people the skills they need for life and learning. These many skills include team work, communication skills, being creative and managing information. The implementation of the JCSA will begin this coming September in all 750 second-level schools.

Of course, reform of the curriculum is but one element of improving quality in schools. Equally important is ensuring high quality teaching in all classrooms. Earlier this year I commenced section 30 of the Teaching Council Act 2001 which ensured only qualified teachers could be paid to teach children. This will ensure the 87,000 teachers on the payroll are properly qualified by their own professional organisation, the Teaching Council. This year we will amend the vetting legislation to ensure anyone working in a school will be vetted by the Garda. I will be amending the Teaching Council Act later this year. This will give the Teaching Council a broader range of actions to prevent below-standard teaching. These changes will supplement the improvements to initial teacher education which I have discussed in this House previously.

A key mechanism for continually improving the quality of schools is increasing the accountability of schools to their communities. We have already ensured parents receive a detailed end-of-year report on their children's progress, including the results of standardised tests in literacy and numeracy. We will extend this assessment and reporting into secondary school as the new junior cycle arrangements are introduced. We have increased the frequency of school inspections and ensured that, for the first time, parents' and students' views are fully incorporated into inspections. The chief inspector has published national analyses of inspection findings, providing more detail than has ever been previously available. Since 2012, schools have been working to implement a model of school self-evaluation, SSE, which allows them to reflect on their own performance and requires them to produce a school self-evaluation report and school improvement plan by the end of the current school year. By June this year, each school will provide a short summary of its self-evaluation report and improvement plan for parents. For the first time, parents will be provided with details of how schools are seeking to make improvements to their practice. This is how we will empower parents and make schools accountable to their communities.

As we all know, Ireland has changed significantly in recent decades. It is now more diverse than ever before. It is essential that schools reflect that diversity, which is why I will focus on supporting inclusion and diversity in the coming year, as I have done in the past. I have mentioned my determination to work with the Catholic Church to ensure a wider range of schools are available to communities. This year will also see the publication of a White Paper on patronage and pluralism which will help to confirm that all schools, regardless of ethos, are welcoming, inclusive spaces.

Today the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection provided me with its pre-legislative report on the admissions to schools legislation. The Bill will support parents by requiring that open, fair and transparent enrolment processes are in place in all schools, both primary and post-primary.

During 2014 a parents' and learners' charter will be created and underpinned by legislation. The charter will put the voices of parents and learners even more at the heart of the operation of schools. As a first step in that regard, schools have just concluded ballots among parents on school uniform policies to allow parents a say on one of the biggest back-to-school costs they face.

Allowing for the diversity in society and putting the voices of citizens at the heart of schools are essential elements of creating inclusive schools. Equally important is the question of how we can better support children with special educational needs. In the coming weeks the National Council for Special Education will publish a proposal for a new model for teacher allocations to support children with special needs. This new model will allow us to improve equity within the system and I look forward to discussing it with Members of the House in greater detail when it is available. Also in 2014 we will build on the continuously encouraging results from DEIS - the action plan for educational disadvantage. We now have clear evidence that this programme is working and a positive force in tackling educational disadvantage.

The final theme on which I wish to focus is the question of how we can best create opportunities for adults in Ireland. As I mentioned, the Government has supported over 60,000 people in returning to employment in the past year. However, an unemployment rate of 12% still demands that we focus relentlessly on providing people with pathways to and back to work. The creation of SOLAS and the local education and training boards, ETBs, was necessary to allow for reforms in this area. By 1 July this year, the transfer of all remaining training centres to the ETBs will be completed. This will conclude the consolidation of the delivery of all further education and training places in these local boards. I congratulate and thank all those who have assisted in this massive logistical exercise which has been very successful, due no doubt to their co-operation.

By the end of this month, SOLAS will submit to me the first ever five year strategy for the consolidated further education and training sector. SOLAS will be to that sector what the Higher Education Authority is to the 39 higher education institutes across the country. It will co-ordinate and communicate and, in many cases, fund the provision of further education. Unlike its predecessor, FÁS, it will not be a direct provider. The strategy will set out how further education and training can support the Pathways to Work strategy. It will also show our ambition to improve adult literacy and numeracy, community education, etc.

Within the next few months I will be publishing an implementation plan for reform of the apprenticeship system. The reporting body, chaired by Mr. Kevin Duffy, the current chairman of the Labour Court, submitted its report to me just prior to Christmas. It sets out how we can have a modern apprenticeship system fit for the 21st century. I hope the response from the partners examining the report will be positive and constructive. The objective is to allow more people to gain access to high quality apprenticeships across a much broader range of sectors.

In the higher education sector we need to keep developing the regional clusters that will allow for inefficiencies and unnecessary duplication to be removed from the system. New legislation, currently with the Oireachtas education committee, will improve the governance of the institutes of technology. In line with the programme for Government commitment, this legislation will allow for the creation of technological universities, thus creating clear pathways for institutes in the south-east, south and Dublin regions. First, they will be able to come together, as required in the legislation, and move down the necessary path of improved performance and capacity such that they will be deemed to qualify for technological university status. That status will not be determined by me or any other politician but adjudicated upon by an international group of experts. It will report to the HEA objectively on the standards achieved by the applicant institutions.

I have focused today on three themes: quality and accountability in schools; supporting inclusion and diversity; and creating the right opportunities for adults. These themes summarise my approach to reform. However, they do not capture all of the reforms under way. I wish to mention a few other areas for the record of the House.

First, I have not made any reference to school buildings, although 2014 will see a €100 million increase in expenditure over 2013. The replacement of prefabricated accommodation and the roll-out of a summer works scheme will also bring significant improvements to our schools this year and will provide very welcome employment in the areas where those schools are situated.

The legislation to preserve the records relating to child abuse will ensure that the most shameful part of our history is never forgotten. The 18 religious congregations only consented to participate in the process on condition that the records would be destroyed. I have written to the congregations and informed them of my intention to preserve those records through legislation passed with the consent of this House. The records would be locked away for an acceptable period of time, which would be for the House to decide, such as for over 70 years. Nobody who is alive or anybody related to them should be identifiable in any way if they choose not to be and if they entered into the process on the understanding that the records would be destroyed. It would be a criminal act against history to destroy such records. Future generations must have access to them to understand that never again can this Republic do such damage to people as happened in the past. The legislation is quite important and I am glad that, so far, I have received positive responses from the people directly involved.

The implementation of the action plan on bullying will be continued, with a budget of €500,000 during 2014. We will continue to work to reduce the pressure on leaving certificate students by making changes to the transition between school and third level education. I will explain what I mean. Twelve years ago young people who were preparing for their mock examinations, if they had not already done them, and for the last lap before doing their leaving certificate examinations would have completed their Central Applications Office, CAO, forms by this stage. In completing that form they would have had a choice of approximately 400 courses from the 39 third level institutions. Now, students are beset with an amazing 900 courses. There has not been an increase in course provision per sein terms of overall capacity; there has just been a mix-and-match of a great deal of what was already available. It is very difficult and confusing for students and their parents and advisers to navigate that landscape. We have therefore asked the institutions and the State Examinations Commission to deal with the issue because it is very stressful for our young people.

Where do we go next? Across all of the Government and in education, it is clear that real and substantial progress has been made over our three years in office. Now we have a chance to look to the future, a better future. It is a future where our economy is stable and sustainable, where the recovery is shared by all of our people, where all of our people leave school with the skills they need for work and for life, where the financial burden of school costs on parents has been eased a little and where we return to full employment for all those seeking work, but where we do not subsequently throw it all away.

The new legislation currently with the education committee will improve the governance of our institutes of technology.

In conclusion, I commend the actions this Government has taken. We have not always been right. I certainly have not, and I have made mistakes. When one is making decisions one makes mistakes, but if I got eight out of ten right I think I am way ahead of the posse. When we make mistakes, the first thing we must do is to listen to the Opposition and Members of the House and, where it is clearly established that mistakes have been made, we should be capable of saying we got this thing wrong and we will repair it within the budgetary framework. We have done that on this side of the House. I invite the parties and Members on the other side of the House to reflect on all the advice they gave and all the accusations they made to us three years ago, to look at how far we have travelled and to take stock of the progress we have made, despite their worst or best projections.

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