Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is very welcome. I thank her for producing legislation to underpin this process. It is timely and important. We worked together to waive the necessity for pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill, which was a good sign that we would work on this together.

Respectfully I have to disagree with my Sinn Féin colleague on the issue of canvassing. The Labour Party is quite comfortable with these elements of the Bill. The message must be sent out to the entire education community that one cannot talk to a teacher about a particular student's accredited grade for the leaving certificate. That is just a no-go area on every level. If one does this, one may potentially impact negatively on a young person's future. That is strong message which should not be diluted. We know that people will find loopholes and mechanisms to-----

See this speech in context