Last week, IBEC, the industry representative body, had one of its periodic gatherings at its Dublin office to hear from a guest who happens to be visiting the country. On Thursday, it was Louise Richardson, the vice-chancellor/chief executive of Oxford University, which has just been confirmed as the leading university in the world.

It is an extraordinary achievement for an Irish person and for a woman to have reached such a position. Listening, I was reminded of another remarkable woman I recently met, Catherine Day, who had just retired as secretary general of the European Commission. Both Louise Richardson and Catherine Day were educated in convent schools in Ireland – Catherine Day in Dublin, where her father worked in the Department of Agriculture and Louise Richardson in the Ursuline Convent in Waterford.

So, what is giving the grounding that prepares for a life where so many acknowledge that they are looking at an exceptional person?

Richardson made a number of points based on clear analysis and an absence of prejudice. The key point was the importance of early education and an education system that lets everyone reach their potential.

Richardson was forthright in pointing to the significant under-achievement by large sections of society in both Britain and the US. These are precisely the elements that have fed into the election of President Trump in the US and the decision to leave the EU in the case of Britain. In both cases, the evidence, she said, was incontrovertible – the lower the level of education that has been attained, the more likely the person was to vote for Trump and Brexit.

In both countries, it is clear that those from a home without spending power go to worse schools and, while there are exceptions, the more expensive the school in both countries, the better the education and life chances of the individual – not a recipe for a stable, progressive society.