Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)

I wish to share time with Deputies Deenihan, McGrath and Lynch. We in Fine Gael are delighted to support the Labour Party motion on this subject. I look forward to the day when a Government will finally agree with a motion. It is obvious that we are failing with regard to education. The Government is trying to deflect attention from it, condemn our motion and insert its amendment. This behaviour is not good enough. This is the biggest issue I encountered while campaigning in the recent by-election in Meath. Class size is one of the most important issues in education. During the by-election, principals, teachers and parents were all interested in the issue of class size. It is worth noting that parents were not as concerned about class size a few years ago but now they are aware that their children are at a disadvantage.

Both the Minister and Deputy Carey spoke of the millions of euro that have been spent on education. If we wish to go down that route, we should look at the GDP and GNP for 1990 to 2005 and then look at figures because they are lower than they were between 1994 and 1996.

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