Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the good things about new Ministers is that they can look at things afresh. Anybody coming into a Department should do exactly that.

Education is one of the areas in which we have seen enormous improvements in the past several years, whether it is new subjects such as computer science or physical education for the leaving certificate, whether it is the introduction of new subjects such as Lithuanian for the junior cycle, whether it is €11 billion secured for the budget next year or whether it is more people from non-traditional backgrounds entering third level education than ever before. There have been really good results in terms of the performance of children in English and maths. If one judges education in terms of outcomes, our teachers, lecturers, schools, universities and the former Minister, Deputy Bruton, have done an excellent job in the past several years.

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