Now is time for Quinn to prove his reforming zeal

In the maelstrom of our crisis in the banking industry, the construction industry and the Irish economy as a whole, it is perhaps natural that our concentration has been on 'bread and butter' issues, on our very fight for survival as a sovereign country (a battle in severe danger of being lost, some might say), and in individual personal terms the desperate need to keep our financial heads above water. These are extremely difficult times for the Irish nation. They are difficult, too, for so many of our citizens whose standard of living has altered so dramatically overnight, for the many who have lost their employment and their dignity, and for those who have been forced to emigrate to seek employment abroad. The task of rebuilding our country, and our self-respect, will not be easy. When the revised estimates for public services were published earlier this year, it was clear that the government intended to spend €3 billion less this year than in 2010. The lead party in government, Fine Gael, published its own economic policy - Let's Get Ireland Working - which contained proposals to bring the current budget back into balance by 2016. A pretty tall order, one might say, but perhaps a nice way to celebrate the Rising's centenary - if we don't have a revolution before that ourselves. In its approach, FG favours achieving this goal by a ratio of cuts to taxes of 2:1. However this pans out in the long run (and we will know all this at budget time), cuts are on the way. It is significant that in its first conference for members held by the Fianna Fail Party since the general election, the theme chosen was education. Considering the other issues pressing down on our citizens, it might not have struck very many people that this issue was one which needed immediate attention. However, it was an inspired decision. Although the range of issues discussed - literacy problems, educational disadvantage, third level fees, reform of school curricula and protecting small rural schools - was important, the central issue is whether we have the will to ensure that our education system is inclusive of all children living in this country. That is a laudable aspiration and one to which all would want to subscribe. We should not be left behind in the race to produce well-educated citizens capable of matching the best in the world and we should all be determined that education is accessible to all, irrespective of class or social background. The Minister for Education, Ruairi Quinn, has given every indication that he wants to be a reforming minister. Most of his actions over the term of the present Dail will be circumscribed by the amount of money he has available to spend - and the word is that he won't have very much of that. As a country, we devote a significant proportion of our budget to the funding of education and training. We place a high premium on our standard of education, although there are varying opinions on how well we are doing on that score. Minister Quinn's first priority should be to look at the Department of Education itself. When the OECD world rankings were published last year, it seemed that this country's report card was marked 'could do better'. Almost a quarter of 15 year-olds are funtionally illiterate. Ireland's rankings in reading ability have slipped from fifth place to 17th place. In mathematics, we have experienced a disastrous fall - down from 16th to 26th place. These slippages were not picked up by the Department of Education. Why not? When a former secretary-general of the Department of Finance, Sean Cromien, compiled an expert report on the Department almost a decade ago, he described it as a place where the urgent drives out the important. We need a Department of Education which shifts its focus from day-to-day operational matters to the strategic concerns of policy development, forward planning and evaluation, according to Cromien. All sections of education are crying out for investment, none more so than higher education. That section's funding is being cut back at a time when record numbers of students are aspiring to third-level. One nettle which will have to be grasped is that of fees. We must push ourselves to think progressively and ask ourselves why we should not have a system of linking fees to income after graduation. Mr Quinn should not allow himself to be bogged down in endless debate about the single issue of school patronage. There are equally important issues for him to attend to in the education sector.