Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and this important debate. I support the idea of history being a core subject for the junior certificate and quote a Russian proverb: those who keep one eye on the past are half blind but those who keep both eyes on the future can see nothing at all. It is apt that the Minister quoted Pádraig Pearse's book The Murder Machine:

I would urge that the Irish school system of the future should give freedom - freedom to the individual school, freedom to the individual teacher, freedom as far as may be to the individual pupil. Without freedom there can be no right growth; and education is properly the fostering of the right growth of personality.

The statement is true. How many students will know who Pádraig Pearse was if history is not a core subject? That is the fundamental question for the Minister.

Let us look at our neighbouring island. As my colleagues have said, it is restoring history as a core subject but we are going in the opposite direction in Ireland. We do not seem to have learned from the short history and experience of our neighbouring island. We live in a country that has so many problems and issues that are relevant today due to our history. It is important that our students and citizens learn why such troubles exist at this time and how we can learn from past mistakes in order to ensure that we do not continue to make mistakes now and in the future. I ask the Minister to re-examine the issue.

I am a member of the Decade of Commemorations committee. It is appalling that history will become a shorter core subject at this time. How much can be taught during a short course? How much history can be crammed into a course that lasts a few weeks or months?

Without making history a fundamental part of being an active citizen, one should know the history of one's country and the meaning of one's flag. If one asked students in Ireland the meaning of the Irish flag and what man created it they could not answer. Article 7 of the Constitution designated what the Irish flag would be. Its colours symbolise peace in the community between the Nationalists and Republicans and the Unionists and the Protestants. I know that it is extraordinary for me to ask the Minister the following. If he carried out a survey of students could they tell him the history and meaning of the flag? That is why I support my colleagues in bringing forward the motion and I ask the Minister to do likewise.