Speech of the Ceann Comhairle, John O’Donoghue, at
announcement of the parliamentary education pilot programme.
the
October 11 2007
I am delighted to be here in Cabinteely today to announce what is a very
important step being taken to introduce politics and explain the importance of
democracy to young people. I have sometimes had young people remark to
me that they only see politicians when there is an election coming. Well the
election took place just a few months ago, we are unlikely to be having
another one for close to five years, yet two politicians have turned up in
Cabinteely Community School this morning.
This isn’t the first time politicians have turned up in Irish schools. Just
over eighty years ago, shortly after Ireland gained its independence, the
Senate established a committee to look at how a new school curriculum
was working in schools in the new Irish State. One Senator who was on
that Committee was the poet William Butler Yeats, who one day in 1926
visited a Co Waterford school on an inspection of the new curriculum that
was being taught. And that day inspired one of his greatest poems,
Among School Children.
Of course you are all highly educated people so I didn’t have to tell you
that. Looking around here today reminds me of how he described the
awkwardness of being a man in a suit, perhaps beyond the first flush of
youth, being observed by a group of young people with their lives before
them:
the children's eyes
In momentary wonder stare upon
A sixty-year-old smiling public man.
Now I’m not comparing myself to WB Yeats. For a start I’m not sixty – far
from it indeed – but perhaps I am a smiling public man. It is also true that
I am here, as a politician among school children, on a somewhat related
mission to that of the great poet.
I’m sure some of you yawn when politicians talk about young people, how
they are the future of our democracy, and how we serious adults take
inspiration from the idealism and clear thinking of young people on political
issues.
But the reason people say young people represent the future is that it is, of
course, true. When this generation of politicians has retired and moved on,
the people who run the country will come from your generation. Many of you
will be voting in the next General Election, deciding who is elected to the Dáil
and who is not. It is very important that voters who will be making that
important choice understand how politics work and appreciate the importance
of democracy.
Politicians complain about voter apathy. Nobody meets more people of voting
age than we do, and we know about the different levels of interest there are
out there in politics. Of course people all tell us that they believe in
democracy, that elections are a good idea and that they know the right to
vote is important. But after that some will tell you that all politicians are the
same, that it doesn’t really matter who gets elected, and perhaps even that
they are not too bothered about voting. In other words they take politics and
democracy for granted.
But it is wrong to take this for granted. Ask the people of Burma, where there
is such turmoil today if they think all politicians are the same, whether it
matters who gets elected, or whether they would be bothered about voting.
Ask the people of South Africa, many of whom queued for days to vote in the
first democratic election in 1994, whether democracy is important. Think only
of those who fought for Irish freedom, and the sacrifices they made to ensure
Irish people could elect an Irish parliament and have an Irish Government.
When he wasn’t thinking about how old he was as he observed schoolchildren
such as yourselves, WB Yeats wrote eloquently of the sacrifices made and the
passions felt by those who struggled for independence and for a native Irish
democracy.
Just as many people in modern Ireland below a certain age take for granted
the fact that we are a well off country, we sometimes also take democracy for
granted. This in turn can lead to an apathy and an indifference to politics
which may seem harmless. Research commissioned by the Houses of the
Oireachtas has shown that 60 per cent of people do not regard the work of
the Oireachtas as important, while a fifth cannot even try to describe what the
Oireachtas actually does. It is important that people are educated to realise
that their vote and their democracy is important.
Because when people don’t have a vote, in Burma today or in South Africa
during the apartheid years when only white people were allowed to vote, they
realise that democracy is indeed very important. The right to vote is one of
the most basic and important rights that we have, whether it is the right to
vote for a student council or for the people you want to run the country.
And that is why we are here today. We decided that there is an important job
of work to be done in making the public more aware of what happens in the
Oireachtas. We decided we would try to increase public knowledge of Irish
politics and how it works.
And a cornerstone of that strategy is an education programme.
It is
important that young people grow up with a knowledge of how our political
system works. We are therefore launching here today a pilot programme
which we intend will develop into a module that will over time be taught to all
pupils going through secondary schools in Ireland.
Over the next few months this programme will be taught on a trial basis as
part of the Civil, Social and Political Education programme in the junior cycle
in dozens of secondary schools. An Education Advisory Group will be
appointed to work on refining the programme with a view to having it ready
to roll out in all secondary schools in September 2008.
I believe this project is essential if we are to increase understanding of the
role of elected representatives and of what the Oireachtas does. We hope
that this will lead to greater voter participation, and will make people realise
that their right to vote is indeed precious and that they should use their vote.
This is an ambitious project, but as Ceann Comhairle I am determined to use
my position to push for the delivery of results in this area. By the time of the
election to the 31st Dáil, I hope that tens of thousands of young voters will
have received an education about the workings of the Oireachtas which has
not been available to any generation before. This will ensure that in the
future, first time voters have a good and lasting knowledge of the workings of
the Houses of the Oireachtas.
The programme itself is to be a highly interactive half-day event to be
delivered by regional outreach officers, who will be employed by the Houses
of the Oireachtas.
Members of the Houses will be informed of school events in their
constituencies and will visit schools, possibly as a follow up to the delivery of
the programme.
Today is therefore an exciting day, and in my view an important one in the
history of Irish democracy. Politicians and educators are to work together to
ensure that our democracy is not taken for granted and that from here on,
young people emerging from our schools to become voters for the first time
have a good knowledge of the institutions whose members they are electing.
Much as politicians might like it, we can’t make people love us all the time or
even at all! But at least we can ensure they understand what we do, and
what we are supposed to be doing, and make their voting decisions based on
that knowledge. Our democracy works well, but it cannot be taken for
granted.
Thank you.