History and councillors pay
The Leader responded at length to Senators on the decision to make history a special-status subject, defending the Minister and the curriculum change. The exchange then shifted into a separate debate on the Moorhead report, with support for fair pay and conditions for councillors and some cross-party sparring before concluding with further history-related remarks.
Sorry. Senators Mark Daly, Conway, Ó Céidigh, Hopkins, Marie-Louise O'Donnell and Higgins made reference to the decision by the Minister for Education and Skills to make history a special status subject on the junior cycle. For all of us who engaged on the matter, be it through speaking in the House, as I did last week, or advocating with the Minister, and speaking as a teacher and educationalist for 16 or so years, the importance of history to the curriculum was never underemphasised. I do not share some of the opinions expressed by Senators. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, has a role to play. Senator Marie-Louise O'Donnell may pooh-pooh it,-----
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-----as is her prerogative, but its job is to advise. The Minister's job is to make decisions. To be fair to the Minister, Deputy McHugh, he has done so.
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Sorry. The previous Minister.
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The Minister for Education and Skills has made a decision, which we all commend.
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These are back-handed congratulations. He should be considering the matter more realistically.
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I am not going to be provoked by the Senator other than to say that it was a good decision by the Minister and one that we all welcome. It also, by the way-----
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It was a capitulation. It had to be reversed-----
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Is the Senator having a conversation?
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-----because it was so unedifying.
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Please, allow the Leader to respond. He has listened for the past hour to Senators making points and comments and he rarely, if ever, interjects. Allow him to respond, which is his job.
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Give the Leader an opportunity to rewrite history.
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Senator Wilson and I had the pleasure of doing ecclesiastical history together. We understand the importance of-----
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Then the Leader understands what-----
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Regardless of whether we were good or bad students, what history does-----
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The Senators were a loss to the Roman Catholic Church.
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We were not lost at all. We are still there.
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The Catholic Church's loss is the Seanad's gain.
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The church moved from some of us, Senator Leyden.
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It would have been one way for the Leader to become a minister. It would have been the nearest he got to it.
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In its present composition, the junior cycle has a firm focus on core learning. To me, history is fundamental to that.