Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this very important subject. I thank the Minister for restoring history as a core subject on the junior curriculum. When will this happen? When will it be reintroduced? Will geography be restored as a core subject as well? This is a very important matter because, as many have said, if we do not know our history or how we got here, how do we know who we are? Then we need to know geography to find out where we are going. It is very important. The removal of history as a core subject would have been a very sinister move because it would have broken up our heritage, our culture and our identity. We have a great history, and our forefathers were great people. I refer to the people who got us to where we are today and all the generations since, as well as all the people who fought and died for our freedom and the people who tried over the centuries and ages to rid us of the shackles of being commanded by another country. We fought for 800 years. That is all nice for the young people coming up to know: how we arrived here and how we got our democracy and our freedom. It is also nice for other youngsters to know. We now have children of many denominations coming into our country. They need to know the country they are in and how we got to where we are. This is important for them as well. Likewise, it is very important our children know about European and international history. That is a great starting point. I know that the NCCA set up this initiative under the Minister's colleague, the former Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, but it was absolutely ridiculous to suggest that history should not be a core subject. Why would we educate teachers to teach history if they would not have classes to teach? It was absolutely ridiculous to listen to anyone calling for it not to be a core subject anymore. This is a forward step back to what we had. History was on the curriculum for years and years. It did not make any sense to remove it. I applaud the Minister on not doing so. I hope he does not meet any resistance from his Cabinet colleagues-----

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