Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We had an excellent debate on the action plan for education with the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, a few weeks ago. It was a great debate with a high level of participation and a great discussion. I ask the Leader now for a focused, stand-alone debate on the following aspects of education. The first involves those young people who leave school prematurely. While the number of such young people has fallen in recent times, there continues to be a significant cohort who leave prematurely. We need to discuss the factors at work there and the remedies we could put in place to reduce the risk of early school-leaving and keep them in school.

A closely related matter involves the large cohort of young people for whom the academic option is not the best one. We need to look at the German model of apprenticeship. While it has some academic input, it is mainly an apprenticeship model. We must look at the entire range of apprenticeships. I notice now that more of the traditional apprenticeships are returning, including in areas like insurance.

I ask that the relevant Minister attends the House to consider why people leave school early, what strategies we can put in place to cope with that and, in respect of those who remain, how we can make school and lifelong learning more attractive. There is a lacuna there which we need to address, including by way of a specific debate in the House.