Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support Senator Mullen; his words are worthy of listening to. We need to be temperate in our language and expressions. Some of the expressions made in recent weeks, particularly on the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill, have been anything but temperate.

My attention was drawn to a different point. This week, Britain announced that it would arrange for the determination of school holidays to be left in the hands of individual schools instead of organising them centrally. Now, children will be out of school for six weeks, which made me realise how short their holidays actually were. We still get two or three months of holidays. Our approach dates back a long time to when people worked on the farm and they needed those holidays. We should draw attention to this matter. We could ask the Minister for Education and Skills to consider whether we are providing enough time for our children to be educated, given the holidays at Easter, Christmas and mid-terms and the two to three months in the summer. As a nation, we have a responsibility to ensure that our children are educated. We cannot do it in that length of time.