Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a valuable programme. Just before I came into the Chamber, I was reading some of the evaluation work that has been done on the programme regarding the impact on literacy and so on and clearly it is an area in which I have a very strong personal interest in trying to improve. When I was education spokesman previously, I focused particularly on early school leaving and disadvantage and there is a scope to develop new approaches in this area. The review is timely and I hope we can learn some valuable lessons from it and apply them in the next school year - not the one starting this year - which has already been provided for in resourcing terms.

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