Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister might tell me a little more about that because I am not fully sure about it.

As with Senator Moran, I am concerned about clientelism. It exists in politics and, therefore, we cannot say it will be absent in education. I am also concerned about poor teaching but I hope the Teaching Council will get rid of that.

Let me make one remark in support of parents. The Minister should set up a school-home intranet, accessible with a password. This would enable teachers to upload their school notes and homework. Parents could then check the homework their children are given to do. By the time some parents come home, the children are too tired. I was operating such an intranet system in a college in 2000. It would not be very costly to introduce. As Senator van Turnhout said, it would keep parents abreast of what their child is doing at school. It would also make teachers very professional. It would uplift them in that they would not always have to be chasing the children. All the relevant information could be placed on a platform.

I wish the Minister well and would like to hear his answers to the one or two questions I put to him.