Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

On Tuesday of this week there were no cutbacks planned for education. I note the Minister is leaving — we should all be on bended knee. Yesterday payroll cutbacks in the VEC and higher education sectors were announced. We did not hear this on Tuesday, as the spinning machine went out of control and we were led to believe that no axe would fall in the Department of Education and Science. If this is a new era, it was a bad start from a Minister for Education and Science who has been, quite frankly, all over the place on the issue in the last few days. He comes to the House today and announces there will be clear restrictions on recruitment. In response to his suggestion that there will be no loss of front-line staff, I have a straight question — does that also apply to part-time staff? Does his commitment to the House today that there will be no loss of teachers in front-line positions also apply to part-time staff? He and I both know part-time staff make up a very substantial cohort of teachers within the profession.

What is far more concerning is that the Minister went on to say he has still to involve himself in serious discussions with the Minister for Finance about next year.

See this speech in context