As Minister for Education between 1992 and 1993, Seamus Brennan found resources very tight. "The Celtic Tiger hadn't arrived and we were just coming out of recession," he says. "One tries to forget the lows of the job, but I do regret the fact that the resources weren't available to meet the demands of education - particularly in the primary sector. I would like to have spent more money at first level.

Having said that, he found the highs of the job - involvement in the publication of the Green Paper on Education - made up for any lows. It was, he says, the most important event of his term of office. The Paper had come through eight or nine years of gestation. When he became Minister, he was determined that it would be "published or dumped."

So, eventually, after a long process of consultation with all the partners in education, the document was produced in June 1992. "It was the beginning of the process which lead to the various pieces of education legislation which are now before the Dail," he says.

"Before this there had been very little in the way of legislation. The sector had grown up informally, with the religious playing a major role. The discussion document, Investment in Education, had been published more than 30 years before. It had been the intention of a number of education ministers to try to lay out the issues affecting education. "In the Green Paper, we finally managed to put together all the options and issues that pertained in education. We looked at a broad range of issues including equity and access for all children, the need to educate for work, for life and for European citizenship.

"We examined the primary and secondary curricula, VTOS, and the Irish language. We highlighted the role of parents as partners and boards of management were examined. We sought to lay out the issues and suggest directions. Some of it was controversial."

When Niamh Breathnach succeeded him as Minister, says Brennan, she took most of the Green Paper on board and turned it into the White Paper.