Noel Rock (Dublin North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Everything has history and in this building and Chamber we are surrounded by it. We are surrounded by people who are passionate about history and by the urgent, pressing need to find the lessons from it for the challenges we face today. Like Deputy Thomas Byrne, I pay tribute to the many history teachers who raised this issue with me, including my former history teacher, Ms Brennan. Like Ms Brennan in St. Aidan's, our schools have many teachers who are as knowledgeable of history as they are passionate that it should be taught and be compulsory. I welcome this move by the Minister. He has shown leadership on this which should be noted and commended. Technically, of course, history was never strictly compulsory, so this is a welcome move in terms of enshrining its status and ensuring that everybody, like me as a young man, has the opportunity to learn our history and study it further in the leaving certificate.

Mark Twain said: "History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes". There is a great need, particularly today, to understand nuance and welcome critical thinking. History teaches us many things, not least of which is the ability to do that. As many Deputies have stated, it gives us a type of literacy, an ability to analyse, to divine truths, to detect bias and to divine truths from seemingly conflicting facts. In this era of fake news the ability to divine truths from seemingly conflicting facts is an important skill. I noted one of the recommendations in the report regarding promoting history in schools and society. While the Minister bravely deviated from the ultimate recommendation of the report and decided to make the subject compulsory, which I welcome, there are some things in the report that are worth considering, particularly on the possibility of involving other stakeholders, such as a decade of commemorations President's award or medal, a festival of history learning and third level history departments' outreach programmes to schools. These are useful suggestions which the Minister could implement to further enliven the course and make it more modern.

Speaking as somebody from an education-focused household - my other half who works in higher education - I am of the view that education is never solely an economic good. It is a good in itself. It is an economic good but is also a societal and civic good. It is a good for the fulfilment of our ideals as a republic. Today's announcement and its implementation will be a welcome step forward. I am glad the Minister did it and I am glad to be part of the Government that did it. It will serve us well in the future.

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