Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

I thank our spokesperson, Deputy O'Sullivan, for focusing on this important issue and for presenting us with an opportunity to debate it in the House. What could be more important than the education and future of our children? The higher pupil-teacher ratio in this State arises directly from a shameful neglect by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government of this most basic aspect of the future of our children and our country.

There is no mystery, nor does it require rocket science to do so, in accurately predicting the number of primary schoolchildren and school places available for them in the country at any given time, as the number and places are known. Why have we situations where children are being taught in substandard prefab classrooms with a pupil-teacher ratio that is often as high as 30:1? Why are schools so overcrowded in some areas that children are refused entry until they are five and a half years of age? The answer is simple. The Government, with the taxpayers' money coming out its ears, has given priority to areas other than to children's education. Racecourses have been developed to a high degree while schools await the sanctioning of more prefabs. Millionaires can avail of various tax avoidance schemes while children are packed into oversized classes. Millions of euro are spent on useless voting computers and thousands of acres are zoned for housing without any plans for the predictable ensuing school places or other services.

This Government has decided the education of our children is not a priority and has abandoned its solid promise of a 20:1 ratio in classes. Teachers are idle while literacy problems affect up to 50% of children in some areas and large classes continue to adversely affect all pupils, especially those with learning difficulties. The Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, blithely dispatches the Government's undertaking to reduce class sizes to 20. The Minister recently visited most, if not all, of the schools in my constituency and she cannot be unaware of the situation in north County Kildare.

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