Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I join with the Chairman and the rest of the committee in welcoming our guests here today. I will take up from where Deputy Ó Riordáin left off when he referred to the fact that something has to give. I am a first-time Deputy and have a lifelong interest in the welfare of our young people through education, sport and the arts. I find it very difficult to sit in meetings like this and engage in the level of discussion we are having because I know the impact the current economic and financial situation is having on society in Ireland. I find it very difficult but this difficulty comes second when listening to some of the nauseating comments and reports made by Fianna Fáil spokespersons, who are members of a political party that, more than any other, plunged us into the circumstances in which we find ourselves.

I understand the Right Rev. Dr. Paul Colton referred to the responsibility on parent-teacher groups and boards of management and the voluntary sector that takes up so much of the slack. That has always been the way even in the days when we were told the country was awash with money. I know from my work on the ground with boards of management and parent-teacher groups how much of that responsibility was shouldered by the voluntary sector.

One of the contributors referred to how teachers are often depicted as having long holidays and short working hours. I have been married to a teacher who became a deputy principal in recent years for over 30 years. There is a growing awareness, which has been there for years, of that responsibility shouldered by the teacher - the long working hours, the extracurricular activities and, based on my wife's experience, working in what would be classified as disadvantaged areas. I am fully aware of that and I think there is a wider appreciation of what is involved here.

I am reminded of the issue of responsibility. I see the Minister for Education and Science is in the Dáil at the moment. I heard a number of references this area during the earlier part of the lifetime of this Government. To put it in context, and I am addressing not just groups in education but other groups, when we took office just over two years ago, the Government had five months' worth of money to provide education and services in health, the environment and across the board. We are charged with the responsibility of not only saving this country but also ensuring that the measures are put in place, difficult as they may be, to ensure that children and parents in the future will have a better quality of education and life. It would be easier for us to go over our heads, as other Governments have done in the past, but that would be very foolish in the long term.

Yes, it is very difficult. It is difficult for me as a backbench Deputy to support some of the measures that have been put in place but I trust the Minister in what he is doing. In the context of budgetary constraints, it was said that Michael Collins had more resources available to him than the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan, had two years ago. That continues to be the case.

We have a long road to go. My role as a backbench Deputy is to ensure that every measure taken and budget introduced is done so in the fairest and most measured way possible. I will conclude by saying that as a measure of the concerns people had, in the run up to the last budget, no group telephoned, e-mailed or contacted me or called to my home more than teachers, principals and people working in education in the voluntary sector. In the aftermath of the last budget, people were on balance happy with the measures taken because they were seen to be fair, particularly in the context of the pupil-teacher ratio. We now know that additional moneys are to be taken out of the budget. This experience today, in addition to the other experiences I have had, will challenge me to go to the Minister to ensure that the budget for 2014 will be the fairest possible in the overall scheme of things. I thank the delegation for coming here today.