Ruairi Quinn maintains Dublin South-East deprivation among worst in the country

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has described his Dublin South-East constituency as “extending all the way from skid row to embassy row”.

Speaking at a conference on equality of access in education, organised by the Higher Education Authority, Mr Quinn said he had been recently confronted by somebody who had disparaged his understanding of poverty because of the perception that the constituency was part of the "Dublin 4 set".

Deprivation
"I can tell you that Dublin 4 stretches all the way from city quays to Ailesbury Road. I described Dublin 2, 4 and 8 as extending all the way from skid row to embassy row and it is there today," Mr Quinn said. "And the levels of deprivation along the quays in Dublin South-East are as bad as anywhere else in the country. No part of the community has a monopoly on it."

Mr Quinn said the number of Irish people attending higher education had reached “unimaginable” levels from his time at college in the 1960s when only 10 per cent of the population had a higher-level education.

However, he said Ireland remained a "deeply unequal society" and the expansion in higher-level education masked how many young Irish people did not have access to that education.