Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

As the House knows, Opposition Private Members' Business is precious. A limited amount of the Dáil calendar is given over to the Opposition to ventilate issues of public interest. This is the third occasion in the past three years that the Labour Party has sought to address the issue of class size in its Private Members' Business.

I thank my colleague and education spokesperson, Deputy O'Sullivan, for again bringing this issue to the floor of the Dáil.

I thank all the mature speakers who contributed from both sides of the House. It is timely that we should address this issue. Education is a core value for the Labour Party. It is the greatest transmitter of privilege in our society, the method by which children, no matter what their background, can realise their potential and live as full citizens.

Deputy Howlin traced the connection between education and economic progress. He is right to say that if one considers the economic progress over the past decade and a half here the common factor contributing to our being able to take advantage of a conjunction of economic events was the consistent policy of investment in education pursued by successive governments for more than 40 years. If that was important then it is more important today. If we are to maintain the economic progress of the past 15 years or so we must be prepared to invest in education. There is a fatalist view that we will continue to lose jobs in the traditional manufacturing sector and the official conventional wisdom is that there is no way forward but to move up the value chain. If that is true it involves more investment in education, a higher skill level and fewer people left behind.

Sadly, by the time many of our children leave primary education to go to second level they are already lost to the system because they were not able to avail of the education they ought to have received. One of the main reasons for this is class size. A total of 100,000 children are in classes of 30 or more. I give some credit to the Government for the investment in disadvantaged children and those with special needs and to some extent in attending to the requirements of newcomer children. It could not be otherwise giving the boom times in which we live. While acknowledging that, what should we say to the parents of the tens of thousands of children who are not designated as disadvantaged or do not have special needs? Are we to tell them that they should make do in run-down, sometimes decrepit classroom facilities in classes of 30 or more? That is not acceptable.

According to the official figures we can expect an increase of 100,000 primary school children over the next ten years, approximately the equivalent of 400 schools. If one examines the rate of repair of the schools we have, not to mention the construction of new schools, we would not realise that number by the end of the century.

This is not just a question of the recruitment of the few additional teachers necessary but of the provision of suitable classroom accommodation. The question in the commuter belt is whether parents can be assured of getting a primary school place for their child. Last night Deputy O'Sullivan drew attention to the situation in Laytown. I met the parents there recently. They do not know whether they are coming or going. They thought they had a guarantee that a school building would be commenced but it seemed to have been whisked away from them. Now because there is an election coming up they have a renewed promise but they do not know whether they will get a school. That experience is repeated throughout the commuter belt.

It is remarkable that we can exchange boastful comments here about the economy and how the population has grown and so on. There has been a great explosion in revenue to the State but little attention is paid to the implications of that for services such as education and health. It is no surprise if we have grown by 700,000 that we need more hospital beds or more teachers to tackle class size but we seem to be reluctant to acknowledge that. Instead, we clap ourselves on the back for the minimal improvements made. The Minister for Finance on budget day boasts about having €5.1 billion more in revenue than he forecast only 12 months previously.

The Labour Party proposes to take the school building programme from under the aegis of the Department of Education and Science and to have the National Development Finance Agency identify and procure the sites needed for adequate school provision. Whatever excuse there is in terms of current spending, in a country that largely finances its capital programme out of current spending, there is no excuse for our failing to provide adequate, properly designed schools for our population of children.

Last week I visited a school in Blennerville, County Kerry. It has tremendous teachers operating in impossible circumstances. It thought it was at the top of the queue but is slipping back.

I thank my colleague Deputy O'Sullivan for allowing us to bring this issue to the floor of the House and as Deputy Howlin said, it ought not be one on which we divide. Colleagues on the other side of the House speak of the 20:1 ratio as an aspiration but that is not true. It is a definite commitment in the programme for Government. It may be an aspiration in their heads facing into the general election but it was a hard commitment they made and did not honour.

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