Willie Penrose (Westmeath, Labour)

I compliment my colleague, Deputy O'Sullivan, for bringing this important matter to the floor of the Dáil. On 26 January, I had occasion to raise this matter with the Minister for Education for Science and I forewarned her about this problem, endorsing what my colleague, Deputy Quinn, said. I requested that a meeting be held of Westmeath County Council comprising forward planners and representatives of Education and Science to get a grip on this problem, but nothing happened. The problem is so bad in Mullingar and the surrounding areas that the county council wrote to the Minister on 29 March, following an intensive discussion, raised by my colleague, councillor Dan McCarthy, at Westmeath County Council, about the availability of primary school places. I also raised this issue. Someone wrote that script for the Minister of State. There are 21 primary schools, including a Gaelscoil, and a new multidenominational school which commenced operation last September, serving Mullingar. However, one must travel to the border of Longford and Meath. It is a wonder that whoever wrote the script did not tell the people of Mullingar to go to County Longford. Whoever wrote it does not know his or her geography. People who do not have public transport must travel to schools in Ballinagore, Ballynacargy, Castletowngeoghegan and Loughnavalley. They must travel in the opposite direction to where they work. What sort of a society is this? The Government can find money for everything but it cannot find money for schools. Deputy Quinn is correct about the American economists, whom I have often quoted.

What about Kinnegad and this great aspiration? It is all nonsense. I do not believe Government programmes. There was a commitment to ensure that the average size of classes for children under the age of nine would be below the best international standard of 20:1. Let us talk about St. Etchen's in Kinnegad, which is on the main N4-N6 route. There is a rapidly expanding population. There are 375 pupils on the roll, with 13 teachers, which is an average pupil-teacher ratio of 29:1. Every class from infants to first class has more than 30 pupils, which exceeds best international guidelines. So much for all the talk about education. The Government does not care a whit about anything. It would prefer to reduce tax for the wealthy so that it can say it does not have the money to build important infrastructure for young people. Lip service is being paid to education and the economic productive that derives therefrom, but what about ordinary young people from poor families? Should they not get the best start, the best classrooms and the best pupil-teacher ratio so they can learn and become the pioneers of tomorrow? These are not rich people with cars who can travel miles to class.

Deputy Quinn is correct that the people are waiting for the Minister in the long grass. It is an insult to say that one school had 50 pupils less in the past five years. Of course there were 50 pupils less because there are 36 or 37 pupils in the classes. If health and safety standards applied, how could one have 37 or 38 pupils in a class? These classes had to be reduced to 30 pupils. There is great anger in Mullingar over the nature and tenor of that reply.

The senior Minister admitted in Tullamore that she had reached the target in 2004 which was projected for Mullingar and its environs for 2008, which is four years out of date. The Minister should ask the Minister for Finance, Deputy Cowen, for funding. I am sure he is not as blinkered as the former Minister, Mr. McCreevy, who created the problem with his right-wing ideology, which is grounded on the conservative forces that destroyed Britain. Let that not happen in Ireland. Let us give our young people a chance through the education system.

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