Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I mainly wish to discuss open access to third level education. Before doing so, however, I welcome the fact that school profiling is not part of this proposal. That is very important. I also welcome that there are sanctions against the lobbying of teachers, which is also important. That took place in some areas last summer and it was completely unfair to the teachers. It is good to have the measures indicated in the Bill. The removal of the situation whereby teachers gave numerical rankings to their students last year is also positive.

The point I wish to focus on is the fact that 84,000 people have applied for third level education through the CAO this year. How many places are available for them? It is fewer than 60,000. Perhaps the Minister can clarify the exact number. The result is that there are people who are winners and get into third level and people who are losers and do not get in. That is wrong. One of the key roles of the leaving certificate examination in the Irish education system is to act as a filter. It filters those who get in and those who do not get in. The accredited grades system does the same. We need an alternative to both. That alternative is open access. In the same way as barriers were removed and students were allowed to attend second level education, and the students flooded in and the educational level in the country rose, we must remove these barriers so all who wish to go to third level education can do so. On that basis we can have the abolition of the leaving certificate examination, an outdated and extremely stressful examination and, as I said, a filter to decide who gets into third level and who is kept out.

In order to achieve that, it will be necessary to have an extra 25,000 places at third level over the next couple of years. In the short term, there could be more blended learning, the digitisation of libraries and laptops for every student. However, it is necessary to get moving now with investment in building and providing the space for the extra 25,000 places. It is a big job, but it is not impossible. It would also be necessary to hire an extra 10,000 to 15,000 staff. That would not be so difficult. There are already 1,200 short-term, part-time people on insecure contracts who teaching at third level. They are mainly women and mainly low paid. They should be taken on full-time as part of an open access system. Some 4,000 extra places are being provided by the Government this year. That falls well short of what is required.

This type of approach is not unheard of in other countries. In the Netherlands, it is illegal to allow access to education through competitive examinations. Mature students do not have to do competitive examinations. There could be an omnibus entry system, which I will explain further on another day. Students can be facilitated in studying abroad. Just because there is no leaving certificate examination does not mean one cannot have a leaving certificate to show that one has gone through the system and has the qualifications, and one can use that abroad.

Last, but not least, how can that be funded? It will cost billions. A Covid wealth tax would be required. Big corporations have profited massively from the pandemic, while ordinary people have struggled. It would be necessary to go after them with a Covid wealth tax and put some of those resources into open access to all, an idea whose time has come.

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