Higher education plan - Everyone in society must have a chance

Having boasted for centuries that Ireland was the island of saints and scholars, it is imperative that everyone should have the opportunity of a full education.

The Democratic Programme of the First Dáil baldly proclaimed that “all shall be provided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education and training as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland”.

In relative terms it was not that long ago that many people would have been the first person in their family to complete secondary school. Great strides have been made in the past half-century since TK Whitaker launched the government’s Programme for Economic Expansion in November 1958.