As we begin National Adult Literacy Awareness Week 2010, we have an excellent opportunity to reflect on the absence of a National Adult Literacy Strategy since 2006. It is vital that the government should begin to address this as a national priority.

Literacy and numeracy are often ignored in the debate about up-skilling and retraining. Not being able to read or count is often an enormous obstacle to any person who finds themselves unemployed and looking for new work.

Illiteracy is one of the biggest causes of inequality in Ireland’s society and economy. Without the ability to read or count, people cannot find work, access public services or avail of education. The personal cost of illiteracy is isolation, poverty, and disenfranchisement.  The societal cost, and cost to the economy as a whole, is profound.

I am calling on the government to engage with stakeholders and to set a timetable for a new strategy for adult literacy. Literacy and numeracy should become compulsory components of all training and up-skilling programmes and encourage people to make contact with their local adult education services.

Labour Spokesperson on Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn TD today called for FÁS to be closed down and its functions transferred.

The recent controversies in FÁS have completely destroyed any public confidence in the organisation and there is a widespread perception that the agency is unable to cope with the massive unemployment crisis Ireland is currently facing. The FÁS brand has lost credibility.

The state training agency should be fundamentally reviewed and the retraining budget should be put into the Vocational Education Committees and the Institutes of Technology instead.

The revelation by the Department of Education and Skills that 107,000 primary school children are in classes with over 30 pupils highlights the damaging impacts cutbacks are having in our primary schools.

15,000 additional students are attending primary school in our overcrowded and under-funded education system since last year’s survey was published.

This is the real evidence of the government’s strategy to repeatedly cut public spending. Fianna Fáil have not only wrecked the economy, they are seriously damaging our education system too.

We know there is a massive increase in the natural birth rate of children and that the capital budget for school buildings is being under-spent. The outlook for children starting school this week is very bleak.

As I warned twelve months ago, the only certainty in education is that there will be even larger class sizes for many years to come.

Last week saw the McGill summer school take place in Glenties, Co. Donegal.

There was a good Labour presence at the event and speeches by a number of Labour TDs illustrate the reforms Labour would deliver if in government.

Eamon Gilmore’s speech set out his long-term vision for a New Republic, Pat Rabbitte’s talked about meangingful and effective political reform, while Sean Sherlock presented a vision of what geunine public sector reform should be.

Labour has the ideas, the vision and the policy to make Ireland a better place and to generate a recovery in our economy and our society.

Have a read and see for yourself.

The Labour Party proposed the following amendment during the Report Stage of the Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill on 30th June 2010. This amendment would require the HSE to maintain St. Luke’s Hospital for the treatment of cancer.

In page 4, lines 29 to 31, to delete all words from and including “may” in line 29 down to and including “section” in line 31 and substitute the following:

“may not dispose of any land (including buildings) vested in it by this section and must continue to use the land (including buildings) vested in it by this section for medical purposes related to the treatment of cancer in public patients in a manner and form determined by the Executive with the consent of the Minister”.

I am sorry to say that Fianna Fail and the Green Party voted it down by 70 votes to 66.

The Bill has now been passed and the HSE will assume control of St. Luke’s Hospital. The Government has said it will implement the closure of St. Luke’s in 2014, but it could happen at any stage.

I am very disappointed that the Minister for Health, Mary Harney TD, has not listened to the many supporters of St. Luke’s hospital.

You can read my Report Stage speech in full below.

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