“There are a lot of barriers to education for adults,” says actor Emmet Kirwan, “whether that’s class or racial barriers – it’s easier to do well if you live in a stable household and not in poverty. When people are living in precarious situations, whether that’s housing, medical, or financial, it’s very hard to do well.”

Emmet is known for speaking and writing about class and social equality issues. With the Irish education system, he believes we have followed Britain into adopting what famous Labour MP Michael Young called the “myth of meritocracy” – where people are chosen for positions of success, power, and influence based on their demonstrated abilities and merit.

But in order for such meritocratic systems to be truly fair and successful, there has to be a level playing field and a level starting point for all.

“To quote Owen Jones, ‘Meritocracies just give us better forms of aristocracies’,” Emmet says. “They allow people of incredible privilege to feel virtuous about things they have inherited, and also things they have achieved because of that privilege. Meritocracies tell people that if they haven’t achieved something, it’s because they’re lazy or didn’t work hard enough.”

Emmet says that, in Ireland, we have to recognise how people have different opportunities. Otherwise, we allow people in positions of power “to say that everybody has an equal opportunity and if you’re not a striver and a maker then you’re a taker, and if you are in that position, it’s because you didn’t work hard enough. But it’s not enough to measure ‘hard work’ if you don’t also look at the circumstances of that person’s life.

“It’s not a problem that people have better opportunities, but it is a problem when people of those better opportunities look to the other person and say, ‘nobody gave me a hand-out’. That’s where people are using meritocracy as a tool to bludgeon those who have not achieved the same as them.

“As long as there is apartheid in the Irish education system, there will be a class apartheid in our society, where people have access to power and privilege in a society that is ready to say those things don’t exist. That enrages people. It’s quite hard to listen to that.”

With our universities functioning more like businesses, the impact of the housing and cost- of-living crises, and the increasing influence of the digital world on people’s lives, Emmet suggests we are becoming progressively more atomised and individualistic. But he points out that people are stronger as a community and collective.

“You are not an individual. You cannot do anything without the collective help of everybody around you and society as a whole.”

• The AONTAS “Holding You Back” campaign ran from Monday 2nd September to Friday 6^th September. Find out more at aontas.com/holdingyouback.