I’m just back from Galway, where Labour’s 64th National Conference took place. Below is an extract of the remarks I made to the Conference during the Education debate. Ireland’s education system needs radical reform and substantial investment. Many of our school buildings are a national disgrace. They are a graphic reflection of the Fianna Fail-led [...]

Today’s ESRI report on early school leaving shows that 9000 students leave secondary school without a Leaving Certificate qualification every year. This is a huge problem which is far too easy to ignore. We need to renew our efforts at tackling educational disadvantage in Ireland. Education is the key to creating a more equal society. [...]

I welcome the decision by the Minister for Education and Skills to introduce bonus points for maths in the CAO. For more than a decade, there has been talk about the introduction of bonus points, but little real action. This idea was mentioned most recently in the government’s Innovation Task Force. It has been supported [...]