Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I am confident this will succeed. In the 1960s, we introduced free secondary education which many people thought impossible at the time. In the 1970s, on the advice of the OECD, we introduced a system of regional technical education which now makes up the institutes of technology system. At the time many critics felt it also could not be done. In the 1990s, I was involved with the then Fianna Fáil-Labour Government's initiative to introduce mass access to third level education through the fees initiative and the Early Start programme in primary school for preschool education. Although we may be in economic difficulties, in the past we have shown the striking capacity to expend the education base with enormous economic, as well as social and educational, returns.

I will be engaging with the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Education and Skills to achieve a co-ordinated, cross-departmental approach to ensuring the required level of services are in place to support lone parents as their youngest child reaches the relevant age thresholds. One of the most progressive statements by the Government was the appointment of a full Minister for children.