Some 300 people in Galway yesterday attended the first meeting of the Your Education System (YES) consultation process, initiated by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey.
The meeting was the first of 16 to be held throughout the State. The process aims to facilitate a national debate on the future of education in Ireland.
It was attended by parents, students, teachers and other education professionals, and members of the public, and was chaired by RTÉ's Joe Duffy. Also present were leaders of several teaching unions, former taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald, and Mr Dempsey.
Several speakers used the opportunity to criticise the Minister for his decision to send in inspectors to schools last December.
Others outlined their vision of the education system in the future. These included calls for more teachers, resources for special needs students, the development of long-distance education, and more resources to address educational disadvantage.
One teacher expressed his fear that teachers had "lost all faith", and that the goodwill they had exhibited in providing extracurricular activities might disappear.
A students' representative called for a national debate on privatising Irish universities.
Mr Tomás Breathnach, who works for the VEC in Galway, said he attended the event to see what kind of role the Irish language would play in the vision of education which would emerge from the consultation process.
The YES consultation process is intended to prompt national debate on several themes including underperforming teachers, reform of the examination system, how to enhance quality in third-level education, and how education in the future will be funded.
Other locations for the meetings, some of which Mr Dempsey will attend, include Dublin, Sligo, Dundalk, Limerick, Cork and Waterford.
Some teaching union members have warned that pickets of the consultation process could take place by the time it reaches Dublin, unless the proposed benchmarking payments to teachers are paid before then.