Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

That is excellent news and I thank the Minister for that. James Hickman from Harvard has stated that investment in early education is the crucial determinate; if a child starts well, he or she will do well thereafter. Perhaps the traditional system, whereby the longer somebody stayed in the system, the more resources were given to the person, contradicted the opinion that investment should be in the part of the system which everybody attends. James Hickman is one of the most eminent people in contemporary economics. He is saying the kind of things that the Minister is saying here.

Every university department should invite its teachers and its graduates back for a day or so. Let the geography teachers catch up on what has been happening with their subject, and so on. Looking at teacher conferences during the Easter vacation, I sometimes wish that much of the energy and the organisation went into discussing the subjects that happened in the classroom. They are very good at looking after labour relations and giving Ministers frosty receptions sometimes; if only there was the same organisation and enthusiasm for the subjects, such as how we are interpreting different events in history 100 years on. Conferences can be extremely valuable, and they certainly are at third level. If I go to a conference outside Ireland and catch up with what has been going on, I come back enthused. I know they have a reputation for being junkets, but they are very important in professional development.

The Minister's speech referred to compliance with national and school policies. This arises from an item Senator Crown raised earlier, namely, GP contracts which apparently have a rigid requirement that GPs are not allowed criticise the HSE or the Minister for Health.