Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I sincerely thank the Technical Group for allowing me some of its speaking time to contribute to the debate on this Bill, which will provide authorisation for an education provider to describe itself as a university outside the State for specified purposes. I acknowledge the presence of the Minister. A previous speaker touched on the experiences of foreign students who come to this country. The parents of those foreign students work hard to ensure they have an opportunity to come here. Those students want to come here because of the excellent education they receive. It is widely recognised throughout Europe that our universities, in terms of their lecturers and the standard of education they provide, are second to none. We can hold our heads up high when it comes to the education that young people receive in our universities. It is important to make that point, because I would not want anybody to think that people who come here have a negative experience. From my dealings with students who come here, I have found that they are delighted with the standard of education they receive, with the welcome they get and with all the services provided to them. As in any area, they might be room for improvement in small ways, but overall they find attending our universities to be a happy and worthwhile educational experience. Our own young students benefit from the excellent wealth of experience that our lecturers bestow on students.

Our standard is very high and I want that message to go out during this debate. The Minister flags this at every opportunity because we want to sell ourselves as a centre of excellence when it comes to our universities.

With regard to the refusal of access to certain information related to the comparative academic performance of learners, when enacted the Freedom of Information Bill 2013 will extend the application of FOI to a range of new public bodies, including education and training boards, their schools and other education centres. The Bill will also extend the application of FOI to bodies which are not public bodies but are substantially funded by a public body such as, for example, the CAO.

The Bill will provide for a new version of section 53 of the Education Act 1998 and this will provide bodies prescribed by the Minister with the power to refuse access to information which would enable the compilation of a league table which would be related to the academic performance of students or learners in schools and education centres. A previous speaker used this opportunity to raise an issue. When discussing education we have to consider where it starts, which is when children go to their first school. The proposed changes to the pupil-teacher ratio will have a detrimental effect on our two and three-teacher schools. Another speaker got an opportunity to broaden-----

See this speech in context