The core principle of the TUI’s education policy has always been a demand that free, high quality, public sector education is the entitlement of all.

If any part of public spending is an expensive luxury it must surely be the taxpayers funding of Fee Paying schools, which exist in order to exclude, and boast of being exclusive.  This financial celebration of privilege is an affront to justice and fairness.

There is also widespread and damaging exclusion of students who are unwelcome in some schools within the free post-primary scheme.  This Devil take the hindmost recruitment of students is based on what children can do for the school, rather than what the school can provide to the community, and it must be condemned wherever and whenever it occurs.

The current political climate is one in which, alongside the stunned reaction of the powerful and the fearful, there is the beginning of a debate about how our country should develop in the future.

On the one hand there are those who tell us that there is no alternative to the Government policy, which appears to be:

Protect the Banks at all costs – do what you can for the children at no cost.

We are told that heroes of enterprise must be incentivised with high pay and tax breaks, because they apparently create jobs and promote productivity; and that equality and fairness are luxuries that the State cannot afford.

On the other hand are those who demand social justice as the basis of public policy, and insist that the fair and equitable provision of education, health, and other public services must be a priority of Government.

We in the TUI know how you can have it both ways:

Investment in education is a public policy initiative that promotes fairness and social justice, and at the same time promotes productivity in the economy and in society at large.

Don’t take my word for it, that is the view of James Heckman, a Nobel Prize winning economist from the University of Chicago, quoted recently in the Irish Times, and referring to the situation in Ireland.

Now, I’m no expert, but as far as I know economists from the University of Chicago are not known for naïve left wing views or sentimental policy positions.

There has been much talk of patriotism in recent times, and for people who want to work for a just and sustainable future, the insistence on investment in a fair and non discriminatory education service could be and should be the cornerstone of any policy which looks, not to the next election but to the next generation.

This is what TUI stands for and we should work for it with confidence and determination.

The demand for the publication of data on the real consequences of schools’ enrolment policies is the minimum required of any Government which hopes to establish the credibility of its claim that it is committed to fairness and protection of the vulnerable.  It should be clear that current don’t ask, don’t tell policies can no longer be tolerated in Ireland.