I welcome the comments made by Michael Martin, Minister for Foreign Affairs, that Mandarin should be introduced as a Leaving Certificate subject. However, the Minister’s comments are at odds with those of the Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan TD. The Tánaiste told me on the 20th of April, in a parliamentary question, (see [...]

The Dublin South East Labour Party is currently distributing its Summer 2010 Newsletter. This edition focuses on Education and sets out Labour’s Priorities for our schools and students. There is also detailed local news from all parts of the Dublin South East constituency. If you have any questions, please get in touch with me.

There is a serious problem for people who are having difficulties with the registration of the title of ‘Architect’. The Building Control Act 2007 was passed with a very rigourous set of requirements for architects who lacked a formal qualification to prove to the authorities. This was done to eliminate ‘cowboy’ architects, but  this law [...]

Yesterday, I had a comment piece published in the Irish Times on how to improve the quality of educational outcomes in our schools. You can read the article in full below. MUCH HAS been written, and even more promised, about a knowledge economy. Yet, too often the focus has been on the high-level goals of [...]