John Crown (Independent)

I will cut down on the formalities because of time constraints. As we are all aware, the opposite of education is ignorance. The educated person lives longer and better, is more prosperous and healthier, eats better, smokes fewer cigarettes and has better control of their fertility. These are well-established international facts and the arguments for a good education are overwhelming. The key issue is what to teach people. Sometimes, the Irish follow the Brendan Behan dictum that the first item on the agenda of any Irish organisation is the split. We seem to fall naturally into a split between the arts and the sciences. We live in a world of medicine and science and I practise in a world of medicine and science but I was better at the arts and my best examination results in school were in the arts. Any good career guidance teacher would have suggested that I keep away from medicine and it is striking that I have managed to achieve a modest level of success in it.