Paschal Donohoe (Fine Gael)

Before I came to the Seanad to make this speech I gave my old secondary school a call. I asked the people at the school what type of institution people think of when they consider furthering their education. The answer that came back was the Central Applications Office, which is for people who want to get into third level education. We need to instill two things into the boys and girls in primary and secondary school. The first is basic literacy. We cannot have anybody leaving our schools without being able to read and write and do basic mathematics, although there are such people at the moment. Second, every boy and girl needs to know how to access lifelong learning in the future. They need to know what FÁS is and what the successor to FÁS will be. They must be as familiar with these as people are with the CAO at the moment. If we do not do these things, the relentless turmoil that is the global economy will undermine the foundations on which our society is built. We will not be able to do everything else we discuss, such as funding the health service, because our economy will not deliver the wealth to do it. The time we spend in this House debating these issues and deciding how we want to change them is worthwhile. There are few topics more important.