Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, to the House. With my colleague Senator Ó Domhnaill, we absolutely applaud the concept of the Springboard programme. While the Leader is correct that people will always be critical of government, no matter what their hue and colour is, I am not going to be critical about any scheme that will create jobs for people in the most vulnerable part of our society, namely, those coming out of college or those who are concerned about where their future lies. The 21,000 students participating in the scheme are a credit to it.

However, I want to start at the other end. I hope the Government might be more focused on the further education rather than the higher education area. I cannot help but think about the vocational sector. The original reasons that the vocational schools system started back in the 1930s was to provide skills for what was then a predominantly agricultural economy. At local level, as we all know, particularly the teachers among us, sadly in some cases, the vocational education option was for the second or third child on the farm or the child not seen to be academically bright. Ironically, the vocational education system has served and still serves this country exceptionally well.