Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

It is good to have even a brief opportunity to contribute to a debate on this important issue. A fundamental in everyone's life is the right to education. When I was made spokesperson I made it clear that it is one of the basic rights. The better the opportunity given to children from nought to six and from six onwards, the better a society and the better rounded people we will have.

I will begin by being parochial by referring to statistics pertaining to County Donegal. I commend the Minister for Education and Science on the investment of €104 million in the schools building programme in the county between 1998 and 2006. People in Donegal are extremely proud of the €35 million that has been invested in Letterkenny Institute of Technology since 1997 and of the investment in 2007 of €7.5 million in adult and further education in the county.

A total of 81 primary schools and 12 post-primary schools in County Donegal participate in DEIS and I refer to the impact the programme has made to assist those who are from the most disadvantaged areas. One knows that a programme is a success when one receives complaints about it. Many people have complained to me that their school does not participate in DEIS and have asked the reason their schools are being placed at a disadvantage by their non-inclusion in DEIS. One tries to explain that such schools are being disadvantaged because the schools that qualify for DEIS do so because of their disadvantaged status. Like everything else, if one raises up all ships to the same degree, one simply perpetuates the disadvantage to those that are most disadvantaged. The Minister should note that DEIS is working if people are complaining of their exclusion from it.

While one cannot outline in ten minutes everything that should be discussed regarding education, I will start chronologically. Preschool exposure in the nought to six age group requires a collaborative approach. Potentially this could be between the Minister, the Minister of State with responsibility for children and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism. I have carried out much work on the childhood development debate and I have raised this matter on an Adjournment debate with the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy Seán Haughey. I refer to the fact that it has been proven that the development of a child's brain is affected most deeply by his or her exposure to music. I continue to raise this issue because MRI scans show that brain development is different when a child is exposed to music. We had always considered this to be true but have not always had to hand the newly emerging proof. As such proof now exists, Ireland should be at the forefront of ensuring that it translates into our early education system. Heretofore, the debate on early education has pertained in the main to the subject of child care. This is a financial issue in respect of how much people must pay or otherwise, rather than a debate on content within child care locations. The media focus on another aspect of child care, namely, whether they comply with the correct standards in respect of cleanliness and aspects other than the content to which the child is exposed. I do not criticise the child care facilities. This should be at the forefront of this debate. It is beyond question that what children are exposed to from birth to age six is important in enabling them to learn at school and cope with the life that primary school presents. The evidence can no longer be ignored. We urgently need to plan how we can support our preschool facilities and maximise the science that underpins childhood development.

In primary schools we have seen great advances in buildings, capitation, minor work, the summer work schemes, the DEIS investment and many other programmes directed at the most disadvantaged. I hope this increase in resources continues as the cost of running schools rises owing to energy prices among other pressures. People building new houses receive grants for environmentally friendly measures such as wood-chip burners. The primary schools inform me that if they got some support towards installing small wind turbines, they might be able to generate their own energy. We have an element of environmental friendliness among schools through the green schools initiative but we also have a rising cost in the running of our schools. Schools are reaching out for solutions. Could the Minister for Education and Science and the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government communicate on the realistic opportunities? There are still difficulties, such as connecting green power sources to the ESB grid, but the schools want to be more efficient and get involved in environmentally friendly projects.

I realise the pressures on the Minister due to areas of significant growth that are putting demands on her resources for primary school buildings. I ask her to progress the projects that have recently commenced. The primary schools building programme had seemed to come to a stop for a long time but in the past decade it has moved on, mainly owing to the Minister's intervention. However a small number of schools thought they were on the way to getting new buildings but recently received letters telling them everything was on hold. If I mention the word "Clonmany" the Minister will remember being there and wondering how it had slipped off the list for so long. We want to see those schools moving to completion. I understand that in some places there are no school buildings for children under the age of seven, but there are other places where the conditions are still very bad. These are few compared with the number ten years ago, but they still exist.

The Minister is familiar with areas such as Dublin 15 where there has been a sudden increase in the catchment or population and schools must be built or expanded dramatically to deal with the rise in population. This can be because of immigration or because many houses were built in an area in a short period. There is a potential for a similar problem in the Border areas because of the so-called grannying issue. People who moved from Derry to Donegal still send their children to schools in Derry, usually by using the children's grannies' addresses in Derry and there has been a court case on it. If the court case judges that those children must go to school where they reside and not cross back into Derry, we may have a problem that will transcend all age groups, primary and post-primary, and I want the Minister and her officials to examine this urgently in case it becomes a problem. Schools in Buncrana such as Scoil Mhuire and Cranna College are already under pressure and will be under serious pressure if this changes. I would like to think we could continue to get feedback from the North-South Ministerial Council meetings. Much good work is being done but we could have much relevant input from the Border areas.

I must use my remaining time to speak on third level student supports. We are moving towards the new Bill being brought in so the changes will be statutory. I implore the Minister to keep an element of flexibility, however she can, in a statutory scheme. The students and vocational education committees are concerned that the grants have been late every year because forms were not filled out correctly. They think the forms could be simplified. The VECs and the councils feel that if they get the powers to process this, it is important they get the personnel to deal with it. The date on which the grant thresholds are released is late and we want to ensure that it is as early as possible and keep the system as simple as possible.

There are many other areas I would have loved to have raised, such as strategies for keeping young boys at school given that many of them are leaving to join the construction industry, which is declining. In the past girls left to join the textile industry. We must ensure we keep as many people in school as possible, not necessarily in an academic environment but in skills-based education that will help them adapt to career opportunities.

I want the Minister to continue to examine access to third level education. The introduction of fees in the North has been a bad step for Donegal students. I would like to think that through the North-South Ministerial Council the Minister could put pressure on Northern Ministers to prioritise the removal of third level fees in the North. It was done in Scotland. This is impacting on Donegal students and minimising their ability to get involved. To deal with the entire world of education in our allocated ten minutes is impossible, but I thank the Minister for her time.