2026-06-16

This is something that I am very passionate about. It is something that affects us all. It is about financial literacy: understanding how a mortgage works, understanding how contributions to a pension can compound, understanding how people can better manage their own financial situations individually and, ultimately, understanding how people can make the best possible lives for themselves. That comes back to financial literacy and financial awareness. In secondary school, there are courses on accounting, which teaches you the specifics and the technicalities of accounting - your debits and credits. There is economics that teaches you how an economy functions, and there is macroeconomics and microeconomics. There is also business studies, that looks at marketing, HR, European affairs and all such matters. However, the key is that there is no real personal financial education in our schooling system. Nobody is teaching young people: how to go about applying for a mortgage, what the qualifying criteria are, how you ensure you are maximising the potential of your pension, and how you ensure you are working towards an initiative for the future that will be beneficial to both yourself and your family into the future. Essentially, I am calling for consideration of an element of financial literacy to be brought into our education system. I do not know any education system where it has been brought in but there are so many people online who claim to be financial experts or who portray financial advice and they might not necessarily have the credentials or qualifications. I am not saying teachers should do a qualification to be financial adviser or become an expert in insurance products, rather question whether we as a society would not benefit significantly more financially if everyone had a base level of financial literacy. I see it across my constituency clinics and in dealings I have with people, that sometimes people do not understand how the system functions, how banking works, how they can best protect themselves in the event of something going wrong or how they can plan for a future. I welcome the proposal to bring in the State saving scheme. That will be a huge opportunity but, like that, it is an investment and people need to know what are they investing in. From the start of this year, there are now thousands of people in auto-enrolment. Those are people who were not already in a pension, who were working hard and earning money but who were not contributing to their future retirement and now they are auto-enrolled into a pension. You would have to ask if they know what they are a part of. Do they know the potential of it? There are probably pamphlets and leaflets and everything online to explain it, but that education needs to come from the ground up. It was Warren Buffett and Albert Einstein who said the eighth wonder of the world was compound interest, because the power of it is significant. I believe that if financial literacy were in our schools, it would greatly help our young people as they go throughout life in managing their personal financial situations. Money is still a taboo topic in Irish society and people do not want to talk about their money situations. It would greatly benefit our country going forward for everyone to have a base level understanding of financial literacy.

I am genuinely grateful to Deputy Dolan for raising this. It is even fortuitous that I get to give the response, albeit on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Naughton. The response I have been given is a constructive one, and while I will give it, I might add to it. It is clear to the Department of education that financial literacy and opportunities to develop it are embedded throughout the Irish school curriculum from primary to junior cycle and into senior cycle. This commitment is reflected in the National Financial Literacy Strategy 2025-2029, as well as in Ireland's Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy 2024-2033, which emphasise the importance of supporting financial literacy across all stages of learning. At primary level, the primary curriculum framework of 2023 identifies seven key competencies, including being mathematical, which encourages children to apply mathematical thinking in real-world situations such as those the Deputy referred to. The redeveloped primary mathematics curriculum of 2023 strengthens this further by including money as a stand-alone strand unit. This allows children to gradually build their understanding of money, its value, its uses and how to work confidently with notes and coins in meaningful contexts. I was doing this with my own six-year-old just the other night, although I do not know if she will be using notes and coins in the way that I was when getting pocket money. However, that is a different story. In the junior cycle, financial literacy is explicitly highlighted in statement of learning 14 of the framework for junior cycle, which focuses on students making informed financial decisions and developing strong consumer skills. The eight key skills of junior cycle, including being numerate, being literate, setting personal goals and making considered decisions, also contribute directly to financial literacy. Subjects, including mathematics, business studies, home economics as well as the ones mentioned by the Deputy, and the level 1 and level 2 learning programmes for students with general learning disabilities, provide structured opportunities for students to deepen their financial knowledge and skills. The redeveloped senior cycle, places a strong emphasis on key student competencies, including those linked to financial literacy. A transition year micro-module on financial literacy, developed by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, supports students in exploring their financial habits and understanding the importance of being financially informed. Within leaving certificate subjects, financial literacy continues to be strengthened. The revised leaving certificate business specification helps students understand how business connects to their own lives while building financial and business literacy. The draft specification for leaving certificate home economics includes family resource management, where students learn about consumer empowerment, decision-making and managing household finances. The redevelopment of the mathematics and accounting specifications will further enhance students' numeracy and financial literacy skills. The new specification for life, community and work, formerly the leaving certificate vocational programme, LCVP, supports students in preparing for life beyond school. Through its two modules, me and my future and community and work, students learn how to make informed decisions as they plan for their future pathways. Beyond the formal curriculum, informal education also plays a significant role in developing students' financial literacy. The Department continues to work closely with a range of Departments, agencies and partners to support this work. Initiatives, such as maths week, money week, our money, our future and opportunities for students to connect with financial services providers in classroom learning help students build confidence in managing financial responsibilities both inside and outside school. I have rushed through that because I want to use my remaining time to focus on one aspect that is not directly used but one we might be able to lean into and one I would have had great experience of as Minister of State in the Department of Finance when working with the credit union movement, which is the heartbeat and the most trusted brand of so many communities. This is something that needs to be taken on a cross-departmental basis, and not only the Departments of education and finance, which is looking at the credit unions, in particular, as anchors. So many of the credit unions are active at transition year in secondary schools. It is they who are talking about saving for college, what sort of money might be needed for tools for an apprenticeship and those sorts of practical things. However, as we all know, not every credit union has the resources to do that, not every school has a transition year and not every school with a transition year has that relationship with a credit union. An informal pilot scheme is ongoing that addresses a lot of the issues the Deputy has raised. My question to him, which would also be asked by the Minister, Deputy Naughton, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, and probably the Tánaiste as well, is how we can mainstream that quasi-pilot scheme to address the very important issues we face.

I really appreciate the Minister of State's engagement on this issue. I welcome the response from the Minister, Deputy Naughton, and the financial literacy framework and directive that are in place. I know about that because I experienced it when I was in secondary school. I was really interested in commerce, economics and accounting and I went on to study accounting. I took those three subjects and did not do any science subjects. I was exposed to all those different elements and received a well-rounded learning in them. However, students who do not choose those subjects might only get exposed to those lessons in higher level mathematics if they do compound interest or the repayment calculation for their leaving certificate. There is a focus on money in secondary school but it is very fragmented. We need a whole-of-life approach to how this is taught to young people for the benefit of their future. I could not agree more regarding credit unions. The role they can play is absolutely transformative in educating young people on how saving can benefit them in the future, whether for college, learning a trade, as mentioned, or otherwise. It is really important to educate students on how money functions specifically in an Irish context, including how different Government schemes and grant opportunities function. That aspect of the functioning of money can be very effective in terms of its impact on people's personal lives. This is an area where there is more work to be done. It is also about bringing all the elements together in one holistic approach to educating people about financial literacy and making them aware of how to manage their money and how they can take control of their own circumstances. As I said, there are a lot of people in the autumn enrolment who might not fully understand how money functions and how having knowledge of it will benefit them in the future.

The Minister, Deputy Naughton, would like me to reaffirm very strongly that financial literacy is present throughout the school curriculum. I say that while also taking the Deputy's point about how we can look to bring the different aspects together in a more tangible and practical manner. There is the question of whether that should be done through a stand-alone subject of financial literacy or a stand-alone stream within the CSPE subject, for example, that is taken by all students in the junior cycle. How do we bring it into the national school curriculum without overburdening teachers while also making sure it is accessible? There is an element of it already there, largely through the mathematics provision. It is a question of how to bring all of it together in terms of preparing students for the general life cycle and providing the life skills with which we would like to equip our young people to make decisions for themselves. Unfortunately, there is a very paternalistic attitude in this State that when students go through school, they should look to their parents for these types of supports, including when they are making financial decisions in relation to a SUSI grant, a loan for college or to get a car to do an apprenticeship. That is not the situation for everyone. Not everybody in school has a mum and dad. Not every student has a mum, dad or guardian who is able to contribute in that way. How can the State play a proactive and benevolent role at that basic level? There are countless examples of people who find themselves at 17, 18 or 19 years of age having to make very real decisions based on a very structured formal education situation in a way that the Deputy highlights as a real concern. There is a job of work to do both within the curriculum of existing subjects, acknowledging there is a lot of good stuff there on financial literacy, and seeing how that can be complemented to ensure it is accessible for everyone, whether they are studying the subjects laid out by the Deputy, doing the leaving certificate applied or will not stay in formal education after the age of 16. What we have is good, and we should not lose sight of that, but it absolutely needs to be complemented. The Deputy's suggestion could be the basis for feeding into an overall review as opposed to a specific measure.