Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. It has never been more important that a Minister of State with responsibility for lifelong learning is active in his brief and that he has the ear of his senior Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan, as well as the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. It is important we put things in context. The unemployment figures today underlined the gravity that faces the country as a small open economy, to paraphrase the Minister of State's speech. We need more than just words of commitment to lifelong learning, retraining and upskilling. This debate is timely and Senator Coffey referred to Waterford. I take the case of Cork and look at the area around Carrigaline, which is one of the highest unemployment blackspots in the country for those under 25.

I heard Senator Ormond earlier, an educationalist, and I agree with her. We need to change the leaving certificate and remodel the whole emphasis in education. We need to wipe the slate clean and start again, meet the teachers' unions, parents, teachers on the ground and the Department and start afresh. Senator Quinn is correct. The leaving certificate applied was one of the most innovative and exciting collaborative initiatives in education. I taught it for years.

We gave students who were struggling a new opportunity in education and they blossomed. They flourished. They went from troublesome, shy and retiring kids to confident entrepreneurs. Some of them would buy and sell one now. What did the Government do? It cut the grants to the leaving certificate applied and reduced its funding. It poured cold water on it. The leaving certificate applied gave hope and life to students. Senator O'Reilly mentioned an ESRI report from some time ago which stated that 18% of students - almost one in five - leave school with no qualification. That is a damning indictment of all involved in education.

The A student will always get by because he or she has the motivation, the ability and the drive to get to the final destination, but the student in the middle or at the bottom does not have that drive. We need to invest in education. It must be pupil centred and person oriented. It is not about statistics or figures; it is about people. Education is about giving people opportunity. It is about creating hope and rewarding people.

The example of the construction industry highlights all that is wrong with our approach to lifelong learning, education and skills. We can have all the reports we want, but we must consider the number of people who left school, went into construction and are now on the unemployment line with no hope and no opportunity. I made the point on a previous occasion that while I fully subscribe to the aims of the national skills strategy and Towards 2016, the white elephant that is FÁS must be changed. It must be rebranded, renamed and given new ideas and opportunities. It must be brought out into the community. Community employment schemes must be enhanced and more people should be given employment within the community. We must rebuild and create sustainable communities.

I have mentioned my serious concern about the fact that there is no Government jobs strategy. What we have head today underlines this. Where is the blueprint for graduate internship programmes as proposed by Deputy Varadkar? There is no response from the Government. What about second-chance education? I am a former director of adult education with the national association of community education directors. We have thousands attending courses every night in the community, voluntary and secondary sector. We created FETAC to ensure uniformity in the awarding of diplomas and certificates, but there is too much bureaucracy. We must allow people to participate in second-chance education and increase their skills.

Most nights when I am out canvassing I meet people who have lost their jobs and wish to return to education. They want to have the hope of a career and are prepared to change their lives. The Government, and our education system, must change with them. The VECs and all back-to-education initiatives must embrace people. Education must be people-centred. The resource is the person. We have a tremendous workforce whose members really want to work. We forgot for so long that we had people who wanted to work. We allowed immigrant workers to come in, thinking they would return to their countries, but in many cases they have not done so, nor do we want them to because they work very hard.

There is a challenge for all of us, politically and individually, to recreate education. If the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills does nothing else, let her invest in the leaving certificate applied, talk to the unions and teachers and create a new leaving certificate and junior certificate system. Our educated workforce and students must be fit to work. We do not need the chairman of Intel or others to tell us we have an issue with our education system. It needs leadership and I hope we will get it.