If I were minister I would retain and strengthen what is best in our system. I would maintain progress at third level but my main focus would be on pre-school, primary and second levels, further education and life-long learning, all of which have been neglected.

Pre-school education

I would make a major breakthrough by providing universal pre-school education.

There is irrefutable evidence that early intervention to counteract disadvantage, to address learning difficulties and to balance negative experiences is enormously valuable. Whatever intervention is offered later is comparatively useless.

Yet we have let a whole cohort of children slip through the system.

The only pre-school educational intervention here, Early Start, was introduced in the mid-1990s and it has not been expanded since. I would implement the Labour Party promise that, in government, we will provide a quality pre-school place for one year for all children.

Protecting, resourcing and strengthening public education

I would begin by doubling the capitation grant. However, the resource issue is much broader than simply providing for running costs. If we are serious about helping schools to perform better, we need to change the way they are run. At present there is a lack of both accountability for a school's performance and capacity for identifying and implementing improvements.

A really good school has to have a strong relationship between management, parents, staff and students. I would develop a more democratic school model, where all these groups work in partnership to develop a school that brings out the best in staff and students. I would foster school leadership, invest in the ongoing professional development of teachers, encourage students to engage in their own learning and make what goes on in schools more transparent.

I believe that if teachers and principals see that they are being genuinely supported to do the best job that they can, they will respond in a hugely positive way. Teachers in Ireland are very committed to their profession but they are often left to grapple with very difficult situations on their own. That needs to be addressed for everyone's sake. The corollary to this would be that the "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" approach to weak principals, struggling teachers and poor management would no longer apply.

School planning and school places

I would radically reform planning for schools. I would change the present reactive system to a proactive one with the State taking responsibility for buying sites and building schools well before existing schools are at crisis point.

This requires the State to gather information from all local authorities on growth patterns; purchase, rather than merely identify, sites for schools and extensions; be the patron of the school itself, where no patron has emerged in an area of growing population.

I would ring-fence a special fund in the first two years of my ministry (additional to the existing building fund) to purchase sites.

I would also lobby my cabinet colleagues to implement the legislative proposals of the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution with regard to property prices for public purposes, including schools.

New schools would have to have low energy sustainable buildings, adequate space for current and projected need, outdoor and indoor sports facilities and flexible space for school and community use.

Curriculum reform

Curriculum reform is urgent and would be a priority for me.

Mary Hanafin has effectively turned her back on the NCCA's comprehensive proposal for Leaving Cert reform. I would work to implement change that would broaden the range of subjects and learning opportunities and reward a wider range of skills.

There has been a whirlwind of change in recent years and young people live in that world. But schools are not equipped to respond.

Top-down teaching methods are inevitable. There is little time or space to give young people the capacity to inform themselves, to reason, to think, to develop personal values, to be able to make decisions about the world around them, to take responsibility and to co-operate with others.

I think we should provide Social, Personal and Health Education in all schools, PE as an exam subject, the opportunity to play a musical instrument, driver education to address the appalling carnage of young people. Language learning has to be totally turned around to place the emphasis and the reward on the spoken language.

I believe the failure to take these kind of steps to make school interesting and relevant to today's young people is a major contributor to disruptive behaviour and early drop-out and does not equip them to deal with the pressures and uncertainties they meet.

Educational disadvantage

I published detailed proposals to address educational disadvantage on behalf of the Labour Party in 2004. I am not going to rehash them here except to say that any civilised country must invest in its most vulnerable children and target resources where they are most needed. I would focus strongly on monitoring interventions to make sure that they actually work and improve outcomes for children. The number of children still leaving primary school with serious literacy and numeracy problems is scandalous.

Special needs students

Integrating a child with special needs into a school should not be a crisis, a battle or a frustration.

An adequately resourced, comprehensive national educational psychological service, combined with regulation under the Education Act, to ensure that no child is discriminated against on the grounds that he or she has special needs is what is needed to make what was promised in the Education for People with Special Educational Needs (EPSEN) Act a reality.

School fees and public money

Parents in a democracy are, of course, free to choose to pay for private education but a minister for education should protect the public system and the public purse amidst growing concern at the trend towards a two-tier system at second level.The Labour Party has also committed itself to reviewing the growing expenditure of public money in schools that are outside the Free Education Scheme but by far the most effective way to protect the public education system is to resource it properly and reform it effectively.