Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. I commend the work of my colleague Deputy Jen Cummins - or, of particular interest and of importance in this debate, Dr. Jen Cummins - who has dedicated her professional life to education, both formal and informal. I say that just to add even further credibility to the validity of this motion. This is evidence-informed and it is important that we are discussing this. I ask the Minister of State to reflect on the contributions we have made and their content.

I have been a youth worker for about 15 years. The Education Act stipulates that youth work is complementary to a young person's formal and academic qualifications. We have heard other contributions today about some of the key ethical and value-based interventions that formal education can make. Youth work does similar but it is also stipulated that it is complementary to the full-time education that children and young people experience. What is so powerful about youth work is that young people choose to engage. Ultimately, this debate boils down to choice: choice for children and young people, choice for their parents, choice for communities and choice for the staff in communities. What we hope to achieve and the purpose of this motion is that our entire community has an inclusive opportunity to be engaged in our full-time education system.

The Minister of State will be aware that we have a capacity issue in many areas when it comes to education. Many parents would simply accept any offer of an education place at this point. That is no compliment of the system. The system is fractured when that is the case. I reiterate my call for the forward planning teams in the Department to really engage with community leaders where there are issues of capacity. We need to work together. Rather than asking parents who are already under so much pressure to have to campaign themselves for the opening of new schools or extensions, we should get our forward planning in tandem with our population growth.

Before giving way to my colleague Deputy Cummins, I implore the Minister of State and the Government to consider withdrawing this amendment. All we have asked for in this motion is for the policy ambition of previous Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil governments to be continued with regard to a target. We are not asking for anything that has not been in previous programmes for government. With that in mind, the motion gives assurances to communities that we can seek consistency in our policy, in our planning and in what we hope, whether it is for our children or our children's children, that there will be a level of ambition there and that there is choice, to come back to that word.

I accept the amendment. There is a culture here whereby, irrespective of the Private Members' business, it is changed and amended and we go with what the programme for Government says. This motion actually just seeks to reiterate what the previous programme for Government had committed to. With that in mind, I ask while we have time between now and the voting block that the Government might consider withdrawing that amendment.

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