Educational Reform
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Albert Dolan (FF), Galway East

I really appreciate the Minister of State's engagement on this issue. I welcome the response from the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the financial literacy framework and directive that are in place. I know about that because I experienced it when I was in secondary school. I was really interested in commerce, economics and accounting and I went on to study accounting. I took those three subjects and did not do any science subjects. I was exposed to all those different elements and received a well-rounded learning in them. However, students who do not choose those subjects might only get exposed to those lessons in higher level mathematics if they do compound interest or the repayment calculation for their leaving certificate.
There is a focus on money in secondary school but it is very fragmented. We need a whole-of-life approach to how this is taught to young people for the benefit of their future. I could not agree more regarding credit unions. The role they can play is absolutely transformative in educating young people on how saving can benefit them in the future, whether for college, learning a trade, as mentioned, or otherwise. It is really important to educate students on how money functions specifically in an Irish context, including how different Government schemes and grant opportunities function. That aspect of the functioning of money can be very effective in terms of its impact on people's personal lives. This is an area where there is more work to be done. It is also about bringing all the elements together in one holistic approach to educating people about financial literacy and making them aware of how to manage their money and how they can take control of their own circumstances. As I said, there are a lot of people in the autumn enrolment who might not fully understand how money functions and how having knowledge of it will benefit them in the future.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16