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

I thank the Minister. She will agree with me that it is important that we put children and young people at the centre of the education discussion and for far too long that has not been the case. It has been remarked to me on a number of occasions that what the Department tends to understand better than anything else are teachers and buildings but that when it comes to young people and children, they are too often not at the heart of our education discussions.

I want to pay tribute to the Minister on the leaving certificate discussions. She put the voice of the student at the heart of all those discussions. They were at the table, they were listened to and they were consulted with. At the end of the day, the Minister listened and acted on what they felt was best for their cohort. That is to the Minister's credit and we have had a better leaving certificate process as a result of that and the Minister's open-mindedness. A definite timeline for this would be appreciated and would represent progress.

See this speech in context