James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased that the Deputies across the floor support this programme and understand its value. I do not doubt that the ESRI's report will vindicate that value, although I do not have it as yet. As a republic, what we want is equal opportunity for all of our children and to level the playing pitch for children who are born into socioeconomic disadvantage. I agree with Deputy O'Brien, in that education is a major part of that work. Being able to keep children in school when the odds are stacked against them because of other issues, none of which is of their making, is a job for the Government and a republic that believes in cherishing all our children equally and providing everyone with an equal opportunity. We level the playing field through this programme. It is one that I support strongly.

More generally, the Government set out to do two major things. It promised to fix the economy and to return people to work. The economy is recovering and we have created 90,000 plus new jobs, with more to come. However, these are not ends in themselves. They are measures that we wish to be the basis for having the funds to repair the services that were damaged during the recession and to repair society by offering everyone as good a start as we can. As mentioned during Question Time, the best return on the investment of money and other resources lies in young children. They are our future. They are the most important thing to us.

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