Joe Carey (Clare, Fine Gael)

Thousands of primary school children in this State are falling behind because of years of neglect by successive Fianna Fáil-led Governments. The Minister last night described the winners and losers in the lottery that is the annual allocation of staff in the primary sector. The system is archaic and is causing massive disruption to our national schools on an annual basis. A school that is one student under the requirement loses a teacher. Is this how any successful business organisation would conduct its affairs?

There are many schools in County Clare that experience this unnecessary pressure. The Minister must address the areas that are experiencing significant population growth, not just in Dublin, but in large population centres and their hinterlands, such as Ennis, County Clare, which has the following primary schools: Ennis national school, Ennis Christian Brothers primary school, Scoil Chríost Rí in Cloughleigh, The Holy Family, Ennis Educate Together, the Gaelscoil, Clarecastle, Barefield, Knockanean, Scoil na Mainstreach, Quin, Ballyea and Doora.

The systems for planning in education need a major overhaul. The Minister must revisit how the Government provides primary education from an infrastructural and a staffing point of view. I attended several meetings about class size in County Clare before the last general election. Indeed, every Deputy in this House did so. It is most regrettable that the Minister is standing over the pupils of Ireland being the first casualties of the Government's cutbacks. During the first weeks of this new Administration we heard many references to Irish political history. I remind the Minister that one of his predecessors, Mr. Donogh O'Malley, took the bull by the horns in 1967 and introduced free secondary education, thus enabling and empowering a whole generation of Irish people. Where are we 40 years later?

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