Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I again welcome the Minister to the House and thank her for her dedication and all the work she has put in. This year has been a particularly difficult one to be a Minister as all of us, across the House, recognise.

I have just come from a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education, Higher and Further Education, Research, Innovation and Science at which the Minister with responsibility for higher and further education, Deputy Harris, asked the committee to look into the issue of consent which some other Senators have raised. A significant survey of more than 6,000 third level students was carried out earlier this year. It showed a lack of understanding in society of what consent is and the real sexual violence being experienced by young people.We have to take those calls about RSE seriously because sexual violence and a lack of understanding of consent and sexuality does not start when somebody is 18 and goes to college. We must recognise that we have to do this as a lifelong learning programme that starts with the youngest children and in the most appropriate way. I echo those calls regarding RSE.

I also want to speak to the Minister about the leaving certificate, which is primarily why she came here. I thank the CAO and the Minister, Deputy Harris, for finding places for the 424 students, which will give some comfort. Swift action has been taken on top of the 5,000 extra college places that were made available throughout the summer. However, there can be no doubt that errors have been a further blow to many young people who have had an incredibly tough year. They had the expectation of sitting a leaving certificate for which they studied before the rug was pulled from under them. They had the expectation that, for some of them, they would go to a third level institution swiftly following the examination. They also had to deal with not really understanding what was going to take place until quite late on or what the calculated grades would look like, and we as politicians would be included in that.

No system is perfect. I attended the briefings and completely understand where the Department was coming from. Now, to make matters worse, we have had these errors in the actual calculations. We cannot simply brush this issue under the carpet and say we found places for the 424 students, because there have been real difficulties for students who have spent money, for instance, on housing and now they have been allocated a place that will send them somewhere else. First, we need to assess whether more needs to be done for these young people in terms of their mental health and economic impact. Second, we need an investigation into how much responsibility lies with the Department and the coding company, Polymetrika. Third, I firmly believe that the inequalities that exist in the education system came to the surface this year and showed the bias that exists regarding the leaving certificate. To this end, we should move ahead with the promised citizens' assembly on education and look at the future of education in Ireland so that all children can have equality of education in the years ahead.