Jack Wall (Kildare South, Labour)

I hope not. They will certainly not be codded in Kildare.

I wish to refer to the time factor. There are adults in Athy resource centre who are trying to get on the employment ladder and are going back to school. I raised this matter with the Minister but she referred it to the Minister of State, Deputy de Valera, for reply. In addition to their measly wage packet because they are going back to school they get an extra €6 or €7. That money is used to pay the rent for a classroom in order to obtain the education they need. The Minister referred the matter to the Minister of State a month ago but I have heard nothing since. Given that I am raising the matter this evening I hope to have a reply. I hope also that there will be an opportunity for those people to get off the bottom of the ladder through education and to make application for employment.

We have always said tomorrow can be better. It could certainly be better if the Government had the confidence of everyone involved. There are teachers in every parish and town who are second to none. They have given their all, yet they are frustrated, demented and tormented because of the lack of facilities to enable them to teach, to prepare the young people of today for tomorrow. They should not be required to babysit or to be in a classroom with 35 children where they cannot teach. Nobody in the House will say that one teacher can look after 35 children in one classroom. If they are in a senior class that is neither feasible nor possible. Yet in County Kildare we are moving towards that number in the classroom as the pupil-teacher ratio is increasing rather than decreasing, which the Minister of State highlighted as one of the major factors.

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