Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I have so far listened to a very lively debate, which I had expected. I do not want to talk about the narrow issue of third level fees. I want the debate to be broader than that.

When I began to think about the issue, I realised it was all about the funding of education. I asked myself whether or not we are getting value for money. There is a colossal amount of money going into education and, as I see it, we are not getting value for money. Something is going wrong somewhere. I ask why we should not have this review. It is important, and we need a brainstorming exercise in this area.

Many people I spoke to, including Fine Gael supporters outside this House, have agreed that the issue is worth debating, that we need to ask where we are going with regard to education, in terms of creating an inclusive society. That is what I want to debate, not the narrow issue of third level fees on its own. That is not sound conceptual thinking in terms of how our education system should be developed. We should be talking about resources to target those who should have access to education but who are not getting it.

I want to look at our second level education system and consider how best we can target the disadvantaged. Have we put the resources into this area, in terms of remedial teachers, home school links, early start programmes, career guidance counselling, and into the best way of targeting and directing people from second level education into third level?