Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The fundamental goal of the action plan is about education providing an opportunity. As Maslow said, it is about reaching self-actualisation, whether it is the student who gets into Trinity College with full marks or students who complete the leaving certificate applied and goes back to an apprenticeship so that they can do the job of a mechanic, the job they love. Education is about us being held to account. I welcome the ambition in the plan and I know from the Minister's previous roles that the targets, goals and milestones are there so that he can meet them. I also welcome the fact that it is a living document. It is open to change. We have heard some very good ideas today and I wish to acknowledge the presence in the Visitors Gallery of Michael Barron, who is involved in Equate Ireland, the equality in education group which campaigns for reconfiguring our schools to deliver diversity in education.

There are questions about the ethos of schools and there have been controversies about who can get in and who cannot. We recently had an unedifying situation of students from the Traveller community being refused entry to schools. That cannot be allowed to continue. We must make our education accessible and remove the barriers to education. Recently, I was in St. Paul's special needs school in Cork, which is trying to make life better for children with disability and another in Greenmount in Cork, where they have a plan to change how they deliver music and maths. We need to get the fundamentals right. If we get the fundamentals right and encourage and reward enterprising schools, we will have an education system that is better for all of us.

I wish to appeal to the Minister regarding the ASTI. As a former member and shop steward I hope we can reach an accommodation. It is imperative for the sake of the children, the teachers and our school system. I know he has made a huge effort but I ask the Minister, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to make one final effort to reach a compromise. Our education system and the plans the Minister has for it will go nowhere without all partners being involved. I appeal to the ASTI to enter into negotiations in a meaningful way. Let us put the megaphone diplomacy to one side and get down to talking again because our education system needs it. This is a plan with ambition, and it is a vision. It needs resources and money but let us make the child the centre of education and give our professionals due reward in terms of the pay, remuneration and conditions, in the form of the pupil-teacher ratio, that they need.

To say the Minister is doing nothing and has no plan or vision is unfair. Anyone reading Fintan O'Toole in The Irish Timesrecently would believe the plan was conceived out of thin air but it is a good plan and needs to be supported.