The annual commemoration of the Easter Rising was held this morning at Arbour Hill, and with its centenary approaching there will be much discussion and debate on its values and ideals. One principle from the Proclamation is worth mentioning: that the Irish Republic is a sovereign, independent State. It says, "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland and to the unfettered control of Irish destinies ...". We have had many threats to our sovereignty in the past, but I wish to mention a threat to our sovereignty today, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP. It has been presented to us in glowing terms and we have been told it will raise EU GDP and create hundreds of thousands of jobs. However, grave concerns are being raised by politicians, trade unions, civil society and non-governmental organisations, NGOs, throughout Europe and elsewhere. The aim of TTIP is to remove any regulatory barrier to profits and the profit-making potential of multinational and transnational companies. It will have massive implications for workers' rights, food safety, banking, the environment, and agriculture, to mention a few areas. However, I wish to focus on education. Including education in TTIP has the potential to do irreparable damage to the education system in Ireland. The investor-state dispute settlement, ISDS, mechanism will give foreign investors a right to sue a sovereign state, with a democratically elected government, for a loss of profit resulting from public policy decisions. Secret decisions made in boardrooms overseas would have more control over our education system than the Minister or the Department of Education and Skills. It will open the door to a proliferation of private and for-profit schools and colleges.

An American congressional report on the for-profit education sector found that there was a 64% student drop-out rate. It also found that 17% of funding in the area of education was spent on instruction. We know there is considerable pressure to expand the scope of the education commitments in the TTIP. I ask the Taoiseach to ensure that education is excluded from the agreement. I wonder whether he has had any discussions with the Minister for Education and Skills on this matter.

The TTIP is currently under negotiation. The opportunity that exists for Europe and the United States, which are the two biggest trading blocs on the planet, to reach a series of trade agreements is nothing new. It has been talked about for over 20 years. If agreement can be reached, the opportunity exists to create approximately 2 million jobs on either side of the Atlantic and to set down the standards for world trade for many years to come. This is not without difficulty. Obviously, each side has a number of concerns that are very close to its individual policy positions. Each side is finding it difficult to change or deal with those concerns, which have been outlined by various European countries and by the United States. My feeling is that if TTIP is not dealt with by the end of this year, it is unlikely that it will be concluded in the lifetime of the Obama Administration. There are two good teams working on this across a whole range of sectors. The perception that Europe was afraid to table the difficult issues and the United States was afraid to table the difficult issues is not actually true. Issues such as tariffs and procurement are being tabled and new offers are being made. Quite a number of chapters of TTIP remain to be considered. I would say, in respect of the education system, that we have a unique advantage in this country. When one speaks to investors from abroad, one hears that one of the outstanding qualities of Ireland's attractiveness is the flexibility of our education system-----

What about the language schools?

-----and the creativity and ingenuity of our young people. That is exemplified by Science Foundation Ireland's investment in so many areas that measure up to challenges that other countries have not been able to meet. I think that is an endorsement of the confidence of our young people and, indeed, of the tutors, teachers, parents and students in our education system. I would not like our public education system, which has stood by this country for a very long time and has turned out exemplary students of exceptionally high quality in so many cases, to be a victim of the TTIP negotiations. Ireland wants to maintain its system of education, which is able to measure up to these issues. Obviously, the team negotiating the different elements of TTIP will have to give consideration to the point raised by Deputy Maureen O'Sullivan. Ireland will be very vigilant in ensuring that nothing that would in any way damage our capacity to continue to operate at the highest level of educational standards will be tabled and agreed.

Under similar trade agreements, countries have been sued for massive amounts of money by particular multinational and transnational companies. I was in the education system as a teacher for many years, so I know what our education system is about. I think we have to be concerned about the possibility of increasing commercialisation and privatisation of our education system if TTIP includes education. Approximately two weeks ago, I attended a seminar organised by the Irish Federation of University Teachers and the Teachers' Union of Ireland at which the topic of higher education as a public good was discussed. Concern was expressed at the seminar, and the feeling was that our colleges, institutions of education and universities have to be independent in order to encourage, enable and facilitate independent, challenging and innovative thinking. That will be threatened and undermined if education is part of TTIP, because the ability of the Government to frame public education policy in a way that ensures the public good would be limited. We are all public representatives. Surely our driving force is to serve the public good. How can we possibly be involved in concluding a trade agreement that undermines and jeopardises the public good? At the very least, can the Taoiseach allow for a debate in this Chamber on all the implications of TTIP? Some presentations were made at the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade, but there is a need for a full debate here. I am asking for that to happen.

The Government will not stand for a situation whereby the education system in this country is privatised. It is clear that there are private schools operating among this country's universities, colleges of technology, colleges of further education and secondary and primary school systems, and that is perfectly allowable.

They are subsidised by the State.

We have no intention of going along with any proposition that would privatise the education system. We have been served very well in difficult times over the years by an education system that has been capable of changing direction to deal with new challenges as required. There will be an even greater requirement for that in the future because of the rate of change in so many areas at present. As someone who is involved in the system, Deputy O'Sullivan will understand that the confidence and capacity of our education system and students to deal with those changes is second to none. I am very optimistic and pleased about the response I see on a regular basis from students who meet and beat these challenges in terms of their peers around the world. No proposition with any potential to privatise the Irish education system has crossed the Government's desk. This Government will not stand for that.

What about the debate?

Of course I will allow a debate.