Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I had noticed the Galway contingent of Senators Healy Eames and Mullen and myself. The CAO is based in Galway and every time I walk down Eglinton Street and see the CAO offices at the top level, it strikes terror into my heart because I remember the days when I was in the position myself. The letters CAO struck terror into many hearts. I grew up during the last recession at a time when the race for college places was extremely competitive. The Minister of State said that the likely number of applicants for university places this year is 70,000. This is a huge increase on previous years and includes many mature students. This puts a huge strain on the education system and it makes the CAO more important.

The CAO is a very good and fair system and perhaps a very brutal one. A difficulty I remember from my school days is that it needs to be properly explained. What tends to happen in schools is that the CAO system is explained to students during the leaving certificate year. The CAO should develop a far more friendly face than that which it has at present. I do not say this to denigrate it; I have worked with a number of people who now work for the CAO. It has a relatively small and mostly technical staff. As far as I am aware it does not have a public relations section. We now have great transition year programmes, a new innovation in education that has emerged since the 1980s. A transition year course to show students how the system works would be a very good idea. It would allow people to make decisions and choices before embarking on the leaving certificate programme.

We are left with a difficulty because 70,000 into 45,500 will not go. This is a recessionary time, and traditionally education has been the way out of difficulties faced in the employment market. People need higher qualifications to help them survive. It is a way of getting the country better qualified to be able to drag itself out of recession. It worked in the 1980s and can work now. I commend the Government on prioritising education in the recent renewed programme for Government. It is not the right time to introduce college fees and I am pleased they were not introduced at this stage in the history of the State.