Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the general sentiments towards Senator McAleese expressed by the Cathaoirleach and the Leader. He was a remarkable man and the day he brought the Orange Order here as our guests was a remarkable one.

Yesterday, there were leaks in the newspapers about the new format teacher training might take. It was obsessed with structures and bureaucracies and said very little about qualifications and learning. It is absolutely vital for the children of Ireland that we lose the emphasis on structures and bureaucracies. We could take as a model Finland, where a teacher should have a master's degree in a subject in order to teach it. It is also important that teacher training take place fully in the university, that any implication that teacher training is a lower academic activity than those in other parts of academe be rejected and that teacher training be integrated, because higher education's most important function is producing teachers for the next generation. I know the Minister is strongly of that view but it appears from what was in the newspapers yesterday that bureaucracy and those obsessed with drawing lines on maps and structures were dominating the debate. It is too important for that.