Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

They are just being politically opportunist. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy O'Sullivan, referred in depth to Sinn Féin statements on the issue which showed that the party was not opposed to the reform programme originally. The party's approach now is based purely on political opportunism and has a lot to do with its own connections within the trade union movement. Sinn Féin is not prepared to show leadership on an issue that concerns the future of young people in this country.

This debate is all about why we need a State exam and the idea that the junior certificate is a high-stakes examination. Why do we need a high-stakes exam for people who are 15 and who are going to sit the leaving certificate exam? That is the real high-stakes exam. Nobody here goes around saying "I got X, Y or Z in my junior certificate". When one goes looking for a job, it is all about the leaving certificate and if people do not have the leaving certificate, it is about the FETAC qualifications they have. If one visits community employment schemes - as I did recently - one finds that it is all about getting those who do not have a leaving certificate a FETAC qualification at level 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and so on. It is all about bringing them up through the FETAC levels. Other countries do not have a high-stakes exam for 15 year olds so why do we need one? There is no need for it and the idea that we need it is pure superstition.

The people who were dropping out of education and not doing the leaving certificate were the people who were being failed by the junior certificate most of all. If one listens to the debate involving leaders of the ASTI and the TUI, they argued that it is the other 80% who matter in the context of grades and so forth. This system is failing the people who do not do the leaving certificate and it is them about whom we should be thinking. Studies have been done on the transition from school into work or third level education. They have found that the junior cycle reforms that were introduced 25 years ago were not radical enough and therefore teachers just reverted and continued to teach for the exam. Students, at 14 or 15, were disengaging from the system, particularly young men from disadvantaged communities whom Sinn Féin would like to think it represents. Sinn Féin is very wrong on this issue.

Why do the unions - the ASTI and the TUI - not trust the professionalism of teachers? That question was referred to by Senator Healy Eames in an article in the Irish Independent today. The unions trust our teachers at primary level, in further education and at university but they do not trust second level teachers. Somehow they will be corrupt in a way that other teachers are not. What a damning indictment of the profession that is.

The Government's approach is the right one. There will be FETAC-level qualifications for those who complete the new reformed certificate. As has been said, there has been significant compromise already. If we want to do something to reform the system then these proposals are the way to go.

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