Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I formally second the Bill. I congratulate, on behalf of the Labour Party, Senator Ó Ríordáin on the work he has done and on the fact that the Minister is accepting the Bill. I grew up in the inner city. Part of the south docks is a mirror image of the north docks. It is an area that has not recovered since containerisation. We have seen much unemployment in the core of the inner city. Drug addiction and crime have followed on from that with young people seeing no future and being locked out of education. They have seen the new Dublin grow up around them. They have seen the Irish Financial Services Centre, the docklands authority and the silicon docks rise out of the ashes.

They feel locked out. They do not feel any of those doors are open to them. They do not see the benefit of education. In many instance, there is not the habit of going through the educational system. I refer to anything that would close that gap, where a child can fall through that crevice and not get an opportunity to have the same advantages as everyone else of a good education. Senator Ó Ríordáin mentioned the ABC programme and the early intervention which Professor Josephine Bleach, who I know works closely with the Minister, has pioneered in the inner city. The ladies who go around the flat complexes in the north and the south inner city are known as the book ladies. They are the people who bring books into the flats and who teach the parent how to play with the child, how to teach the ABCs, and how to hold a pencil, a simple little thing. Child arrive into a classroom in the first year of study and have not have developed the dexterity to hold a pencil.

At four or five years of age, when the children enter the formal education system, they are already two or three years behind in their development. This Bill is a small measure to close off one of the gaps. I refer to the habit of going to school everyday, which is so important. The Bill does not set out punish parents but to support parents and children to make sure they have equality of opportunity. In many places, from Tallaght to Ringsend and from the North Wall to Ballymun, many of our children are denied that equality of opportunity from the very beginning. Sometimes it is due to circumstances outside of the child's control. It may be a problem the parents have with addiction, whether drugs or alcohol, or it may even be that their parents did not regard education as empowering or as a way to future prosperity.

I visit schools in my area when the leaving certificate results come out. I will not mention the schools but if one visits a school in an affluent area in my constituency and asks students where they are going and what is next, I will be told they are going to Trinity, that they have applied to UCD or that they are taking a gap year and that they are going to Oxford next year. They have their educational roadmap laid out in front of them. If one visits the north or south inner city and asks the same question, one may be hit with the answer that they are going to sign on. How do we stop children giving up by the age 17 or 18? We have to make sure the supports are put in at a very early stage. That is why the ABC programme and the early intervention have worked so well. I supported the work of Professor Josephine Bleach, and the Minister has continued to support that fantastic programme. It has empowered children and got them to the starting line at the same level as everyone else. We have to do what Senator Ó Ríordáin said, namely, not break off support once they enter the education system. We have to support parents and children to develop the good habit of going to school every day. They should not miss school because holidays are being booked close to summer holidays or because there is an event in the family. We need to emphasise the importance of going to school every day and make sure that habit is entrenched at a very early stage in a child's educational life. We also need to make sure that the support of Tusla is in place to assist parents and children. All Departments can be underfunded, but let us deal with that and make sure our legislation reflects our ambition for our young people.

I welcome the Minister's support for the Bill. Everybody in the House wants the best for all of our children. Unfortunately, in this State some children start school at a disadvantage because of the areas in which they are born. We have a responsibility, given the economic recovery, to target that economic recovery at our children to make sure they have equality of opportunity. A child in Pearse Street should have the same opportunities as a child born in Terenure. If we work together and focus the spending of the recovery in the proper areas, the next generation of children will be the best generation we can possibly produce. I again thank the Minister for her support for the Bill.