Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The new education and training boards set up under SOLAS to deliver skills and apprenticeship training to our young school leavers will meet for the first time this month. The legislation to establish the education and training boards was initiated in the Seanad and significant amendments to the Bill were tabled in the Seanad before it was sent to the Dáil. With the demand for new skills, this is an important time for these boards. Some five education and training boards do not have a training centre under the current structure, and the delivery of courses will be from other education and training boards. We must keep an eye on this. I do not know how it will work out but I ask the Leader to invite the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, Deputy Damien English to make a statement on this matter. I reiterate that the legislation was initiated in the Seanad and we have a very special function in this regard.
Senator Mary White made a rousing speech. It was a pity she did not get a run for the Office of President as she could possibly be there in 2016 to preside over the commemorations. I was nearly getting my old Thompson gun down from the attic and calling on Volunteer Cullinane to come out with me, but then I remembered the words of W.B. Yeats: "Did that play of mine send out/Certain men the English shot?". I decided to rest easy.
Senator Norris also referred to a line in Yeats' poem Easter, 1916: "A drunken, vainglorious lout." That was a particular reference to an individual, Major John MacBride, not because he was fighting in 1916 but because he stole his bird from him. It was not a general reference to the leaders of 1916.
Both traditions are noble. I would prefer that we reflect on the words of Mrs. Una O'Higgins O'Malley in which she says that Irish people North and South:

Should gaze into the faces of their children
And not their ancestors
While planning for the future.

I concur with Senator Paschal Mooney's call yesterday for the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Charles Flanagan, to come to the Seanad. To quote from the Proclamation:

IRISHMEN AND IRISHWOMEN: In the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland, through us, summons her children to her flag and strikes for her freedom.

The leaders of 1916 did not have popular support but went not with the will of the people but in the name of God and of the dead generations. If we do not work in the North to get political progress from all sides, we are in danger of those at the extremes taking over and politics being cast to one side. It is quite a dangerous situation at present. I agree that we need the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to come to the House and outline what we can do to help keep politics to the forefront in the North.