Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"—recognising that of the current workforce of 1.43 million, 440,000 have at most lower secondary education, including 165,000 aged 35 or less;

recognising that participation by Irish adults in ongoing education and training remains low compared with other EU countries at just 8%;

noting that 500,000 people already at work will need to formally progress by at least one level under the National Qualifications Framework above their current level to retain employability;

calls for the Government to:

increase the number of people in employment that progress by at least one level under the National Framework of Qualifications by 100,000;

review literacy commitments under 'Towards 2016' to tackle Ireland's growing literacy problem;

provide adequate funding for English language teachers and classes to allow for effective integration of migrant workers;

provide sufficient educational and training progression routes for those engaging in adult education and upskilling; and

put in place clear mechanisms for the implementation of the National Skills Strategy."

I welcome the Minister of State to the House, as this is my first time to meet him. I am pleased that the Fianna Fáil Members have tabled this motion. Adult education and lifelong learning have for too long been the poor relations in the education sector. As the evidence will show, the Government cannot justifiably be proud of its record in this area. In preparation for this debate I spoke to numerous providers, including the National Adult Literacy Agency, Galway City and County VECs, the Irish Vocational Education Association, the umbrella body for VECs, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology and the Educational Research Centre in Dublin. The outcomes of these discussions were damning.

I will first deal with the area of investment in literacy education for adults. I know these learners as I have worked with them. As Mark Daly said, literacy is their only chance of freedom. It also improves their chances of finding employment and increasing their own confidence. It is their passport to independence. Currently, investment in adult education and literacy budgets is inadequate to meet the established needs as documented by VECs nationally. The current low levels of literacy reinforce the poverty trap. Last year Galway County Council, in its poverty profile, estimated that 29,000 learners needed help with literacy but that only 4% to 5% of these receive it. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The VECs in Galway are bursting at the seams with the demand. Their budgets are so tight they must refuse ten hours of tuition.

In 1996, the international adult literacy survey, IALS, was conducted in this country. This showed that 25% or one quarter of the adult population had significant literacy difficulties. Is it not odd that no further assessment has taken place since, despite the fact that this was promised in the White Paper on Adult Education in 2000? What is the basis for the distribution of funding suggested by the Fianna Fáil Senators, since they do not have up-to-date information? It is clear from talking to providers that more and more people are presenting with literacy needs. This is good. In addition, more people are arriving in this country with language and literacy needs.

In 2007, the Government committed €30 million towards the budget for adult literacy, of which €26 million went to VECs, covering about 40,000 learners with an average of two hours' tuition each week. The other €3 million or so went to FÁS for the workplace education budget. However, €10 million of the total budget will go to ESOL, English for speakers of other languages. Thus, the real commitment to literacy is about €20 million. The area is still very under-resourced. County Galway VEC, of which I was the chairperson two years ago, is to receive €430,000 for adult literacy programmes, but it needs two and a half times that budget to meet the needs it knows of, which will require in the region of €1 million. Last year the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science stated in its report that the budget needed to be quintupled from €20 million to €100 million, with increases of 27% each year, to meet the targets set out in its recommendations.

During my discussions with Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, it was suggested that students who drop out at second level or do not progress to third level should be entitled to 180 credits of free higher education — in other words, a three-year course — as is the right of any other citizen. This is something we should seriously consider. The problem is that because these students would be part-time, they would not qualify for free fees. This is discrimination. I call on the Minister of State to consider the provision of a voucher system that would enable every citizen to have three years of free higher education whenever they wished to cash in their vouchers. This would be a wonderful initiative as it would address many of our current needs in the area of upskilling, which the previous speakers identified as being important. Some 650,000 people have qualifications at junior certificate level or lower, of whom 10% have no qualifications at all. The proposed voucher system would go a long way towards addressing that need.

My second point is the Government's lack of investment in ESOL and teachers in this area, TESOL. This is having a negative impact on integration in Irish society. Everyone agrees that integration is a major issue, but the area is fraught with difficulties. For example, the 2006 census shows that 250,000 people come from non-English speaking countries. The Minister of State has committed only €10 million to these people. As I said, this is the tip of the iceberg. The benefits of investing in this area would include better integration of the new Irish into society, elimination of so-called white flight from our schools and continued economic growth and opportunities for creativity and mutual gain.

My final point concerns the area in which I condemn the Government the most. I am stunned by the line in the Fianna Fáil motion concerning investment in education for those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This has been the Government's greatest failure, as can be seen from the education and employment outcomes. What are the problems we see in socially disadvantaged environments? Children have difficulties in securing school places. Attendance in school, examination results and attention levels are poor. A total of 20% of second level students are underperforming. This is a national statistic and is therefore averaged over all environments. In disadvantaged areas the number is far higher. Why is this? It is because the adults in these areas are not equipped to help their own children at school.