Niall Ó Brolcháin (Green Party)

I commend Senator Norris on his point on the back-to-education allowance for Access students and how we simply cannot rely on clichés. He is absolutely right. Education is not about clichés but lifelong learning. There is often confusion between education and schooling when they are not the same. I recall my young son, when he was one year old, being fascinated by a leaf and learning about it. Most of what we learn, we learn as young children. When I was mayor of Galway, I had the honour to preside over a conferring ceremony at the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology. Towards the end of the ceremony which involved many young people accepting their awards, I noted an 80 year old lady accepting her degree. As she had not received a degree when she was a young woman, she decided to complete a degree course in her eighties. The general reaction in the hall to her accepting her degree was fantastic. Learning is not just about obtaining degrees, it is a lifelong process. It does not stop at the end of a university term or at a particular point in one's education.

In a time of recession every Department will find it difficult. In this very difficult recession I am pleased education has been prioritised as one area of expenditure that will suffer less than others. Traditionally, it is the people who bring an economy out of a recession. It is important to ensure they have as much access to education as is possible to allow them to adapt to new circumstances.

Regarding the back-to-education allowance for Access students, the right to education is contained in the Constitution. I want mature students to be able to go to college independent of means to the extent that is possible. The Government has managed to keep third level fees off the agenda. Unfortunately, there are difficulties for people from underprivileged backgrounds who attend Access courses, on which the Government is working. As Senator Norris correctly pointed out, the maintenance grant and the back-to-education allowance were previously available to these students. The latter is only available now. Those most in need should not be prevented from going to college simply because they cannot afford it. I hope the Government will sort out this issue before the new school year.

Today I had the great privilege, with the Minister of State, Deputy Moloney, to meet several persons with Down's syndrome. It was a fantastic experience. They were very well educated and lobbying to secure speech therapy services. Speech therapy is an anomaly in the health and education sectors. It is a crucial part of the delivery of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act agreed in the programme for Government. The difficulty, however, is that funding for such services is provided by the Department of Health and Children. There are enough speech therapists in the country to ensure all children who require such therapy will receive it. The problem, however, arises with delivery mechanisms which are not available to all children. We need to look at imaginative delivery mechanisms which I know the Minister for Health and Children is examining.

I commend the green flag programme run by An Taisce in schools. People remember their school days, not necessarily for the modh coinníolach or the grind of maths but for special events. I refer to the idea of working towards project-based learning whereby people work towards a green flag. This is very empowering for younger people and they get a great amount out of it. I have attended a number of green flag ceremonies and events from which young children take great memories and learn a great amount of necessary skills for the future, including political and environmental knowledge, which they would not otherwise get from the curriculum. Such programmes are very important and we should consider the introduction of more of them, especially in the area of health. We have a view of health education in this country which is not as progressive as that of other countries. Health education is an area where we can attain real gains in respect of the overall health of the nation.

Other countries have increased their budgets or spend in health education and have seen very real benefits over a period. Finland is a case in point. It took a strategic decision to increase the spend on health education and promotion. This produced real and lasting effects. That country went from a health system which was not one of the top systems in Europe to the top health system in the world over a relatively short number of years. There is no reason this country should not aim to be among the best in the world in both health and education. I do not believe money is a barrier to that end, despite the difficult times we are going through at the moment. We can achieve lifelong learning by implementing the various policies which are being put forward by virtually all parties in respect of education. I refer to the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act and imaginative programmes for people of all ages, including programmes for older people, which are very important. Community-based education is very important as well. We must work on several projects which can enhance the overall education of the nation, but not on a cost basis in this difficult time of recession.