Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Yes, it is a small amount of money, until one multiplies it by every school in the country, and then it becomes a couple of million euro. There are schools that are running similar programmes, and one must learn how to do things. The culture of dependency on a grant for this and extra cash for that was characteristic of Fianna Fáil from 1997 until the collapse. The party would throw money at a problem to try to buy votes and get a result, but ultimately it lost all the votes it had and left a legacy of destruction around the country. I suggest that the lessons learned from the Meitheal programme could possibly be explored in a more modest way in the Wexford area, and I will tell the Deputy the reason I believe this would be worthwhile. The conventional thinking in the note prepared for me is to concentrate on DEIS schools. In fact, however, the majority of people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are actually outside DEIS schools, and this is a unique attribute of the scheme to which the Deputy referred.

There may be alternative proposals that can encompass some of the principles and ideas contained within the Meitheal programme, which is a good scheme, and which do not necessarily require money. I note the presence of buddy systems in other schools that do not cost money. There are ways in which the leadership and pastoral care potential of students can be enhanced that do not cost money. While one should not throw out the baby with the bathwater, the money simply is not there. As for the old-style Fianna Fáil attitude of finding money and throwing it at people in the hope that it will stick, or whatever, that option simply is not around any more, be it in education, health or elsewhere. We must find ways of working within our own resources, which remain limited.

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