I visited this school last Friday morning to meet a 2nd year class. I gave a short presentation on politics and life in the Oireachtas.
In my presentation I mentioned that we were speaking a few hours before the Greek press conference that announced the need for help from other EU countries. I used this as an example for how political decisions impact on the lives of citizens.
As always the best part of these classes are the questions. A wide variety of questions included
– why should we give money to Greece (because we rely on European help too).
– how much money do I earn (told them all the details).
– is it fair to take from those who work to give to those who don’t (talked about soladarity and enlightened self interest).
– why government is making such cutbacks (talked about the gap between spending and taxation).
I left with a large number of hands still up for questions. Just ran out of time.
Its always such a pleasure to visit this school.