Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I support Senator Bacik's call for the Minister for Education and Science to come to the House to deal with the many issues raised, although I would not expect him to answer all of the questions I wish to ask. I refer to the role of the universities and raise the question of whether there are too many of them; whether there are too many institutes of technology and whether there is duplication of programmes in third level institutions, as well as the role of primary schools' boards of management. Many issues arise with regard to the future of education. I refer to the role of the VECs and possible duplication of courses, with too many academic courses as opposed to vocational courses. These are all significant issues. I do not expect the Minister to be able to answer every question but there is a role for this House to in a discussion of the future of education and how we will shape future society. I suggest we do not need to have the Minister come to the House in order to have our own discussion and a brainstorming session. As the jury is out, it would be worthwhile including in the work programme for this term an ongoing debate on many of these educational issues.