The finding, in a UN report, that 23 per cent of the people of this State are unable to read instructions, a bill or a form - that they are "functionally illiterate" - is almost incredible. But it is not a new finding. Two years ago, the OECD came up with a similar figure - 25 per cent. It is this magnitude of illiteracy that led the UN to find that Ireland has the highest levels of poverty in the industrialised world outside the US. What it means in practise is that more than one fifth of the population is increasingly excluded from the information-based society. It also means that a startling number of people are leaving the education system without having acquired basic competence.
To his credit, Mr Willy O'Dea, the Minister of State for Education and Science, has more than doubled spending on adult literacy programmes since 1997. He has brought out a Green Paper on Adult Education which put a high priority on literacy and he expects to publish a White Paper by the end of the year. But much more is needed. As the National Adult Literacy Agency points out, the 10,000 adults currently doing literacy courses (double the number in 1995) get two hours of tuition a week each. NALA would like to see far more provided for a much larger number of people.
Given the startling figures for illiteracy, there is an excellent case to be made for a determined and well-funded attack on the problem across a wide front. This must include initiatives in the schools and in the workplace. Something is wrong in an education system which fails a quarter of all those who go through it. It may be that action must begin at pre-school level and continue right up to third level.
As regards the workplace, it is a sad commentary on industry's commitment to training and education that the volunteers trained by NALA in workplace literacy have found no takers at all for their services. This must be put right by the employers and the trade unions when they end the phoney war and get down to negotiating the next national partnership agreement.
As the Labour Party spokeswoman on health, Ms Liz McManus, has pointed out, it is important not to lose sight of the global findings of this report. Perhaps the most startling is that the assets of the world's 200 richest people exceed the combined income of 41 per cent of the world's population.
What can or should we do about such a extraordinary finding? Perhaps the most useful contribution we can make at this stage is to give energetic and sustained support to the international campaign for the writing-off of Third World debt on a large scale. Campaigners claim that the diversion of funds into debt repayment and servicing is starving third world health and education services and costing the lives of millions of children. Through our membership of the EU we can be a valuable voice in support of this campaign.