Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Táimid ag dul ar aghaidh. Níl scoilt eadrainn faoi sin, pé scéal é. Déarfainn, dá mbeadh acmhainní ar fáil, gur chóir iad a dhíriú i dtreo téacsleabhar do na meánscoileanna lán-Ghaelacha nach bhfuil ar fáil faoi láthair. I gcás mo mhic féin, leis an chuid is mó de na hábhair theicniúla a bhí idir lámha aige, bhí ar na páistí téacsleabhair Béarla a úsáid agus foclóir Gaeilge ag an am céanna chun na focail theicniciúla a aistriú go Gaoluinn. Ba chóir go mbeadh téacsleabhair ar fáil, agus sin an sprioc is tábhachtaí ar cheart don Rialtas a bheith aige. Rudaí a fhoilsiú i nGaoluinn would be to make sure that ever single second level school teaching through Irish would have available to it high quality text books in Irish. That is the most immediate problem.

Senator Brian Hayes is right about Iran. The situation there is becoming extremely worrying. Let us not forget that until comparatively recently the state of Israel pretended there was no such place as Palestine and said there were no such people as Palestinians, they were Jordanians and Egyptians and other people and that what they moved into in 1948 was essentially an empty space. I do not subscribe to that view but we genuinely have to worry about what is happening in Iran. It is an extraordinary country and is not by any means the most repressive country. It is a freer country than Saudia Arabia. It has used the greater freedom to elect a President and that is disturbing.

After Christmas may we have a solid debate on the Government's proposals on what it has described as, and I do not disagree, fourth level education, linked into which is the large capital funding the Minister announced last Sunday for the third level sector? A number of issues arise that deserve to be watched. One is the fact that in two years' time one of our biggest universities will turn virtually all of its engineering degrees into five-year degrees, with a three-year BSc, followed by two years in which to get a masters. This means that in the last two of the five years students will pay fees. Therefore, three years of the course will be fee free and students will pay fees for the other two years.