Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

Last week, pensioners and students stood in their thousands outside the gates of this Parliament. Tonight parents and teachers are standing in the cold to defend the thousands of children throughout the country who are under attack. A budget that promised to protect the vulnerable has turned into a blunderbuss directed towards the young and the elderly. It is no wonder that the anger is palpable in the avalanche of e-mails and telephone calls we have received. I want to give voice to this anger and I can only do so by putting on the record some fragments of the views I received from schools in County Wicklow.

One school states:

The increase in the student teacher ratio means we lose one to two teachers. The withdrawal of paid substitution will lead to total chaos in our school from January onwards.

A teacher asks:

I have been sick only twice in my entire teaching career. Is it seriously being proposed that a sick teacher gets out of bed, attends the doctor and informs their principal well before 8.30 a.m. so the principal has time to arrange a substitute? Get real.

Another communication states;

Our school is grossly overcrowded due to the expansion of Enniskerry and we have been waiting patiently for a promised extension. To compound matters class sizes are being increased.

A teacher of home economics writes;

My school will suffer hugely. We will lose teachers, have larger classes and reduced subject choice. Field trips and sports will be cancelled. The grant for my main subject is to be abolished. Where is the money to come from?

Another teacher referring to foreign nationals in her school states, "these children will find themselves lost in already over populated classrooms, making integration virtually impossible".

A parent states;

My daughter is in fifth year. She will not be able to continue doing chemistry next year. How on earth does the Government expect her to change subjects during her leaving cert course?

The worst and most telling is a report of a school that had its refurbishment stalled long before the budget with little hope now after it:

Our main concerns are: A boiler that is 41 years old and a health and safety risk so there is no heating as a result; regular sewage and water discharge into the boiler room; no fire alarm system; no fire escape; no emergency lighting; no fire safety certificates on any of the buildings; toilets are completely unsanitary; no hot water services; and evidence of vermin at the rear of the building.

These comments are only a fraction of the feedback I have received. These education cutbacks are shortsighted, unfair and unworkable. They are being driven by a Fianna Fáil Party which introduced free secondary education when times were rough and a Green Party which gave us lectures on education when times were easy. Many people voted for these parties on the promise that class sizes would fall and education supports would improve. Instead of keeping faith with the people, their children are being asked to pay a terrible price for Government incompetence and extravagance.

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