Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)

In putting down this motion, the Labour Party is defending progress made in the education system such as the reduction of class sizes, tackling educational disadvantage and getting more students to stay in school and go on to college. Initiatives that have contributed to this progress have been generated across the political spectrum. Thanks must be paid to teachers, students and parents for their part in this regard.

Much of the progress has been the result of initiatives introduced by the former Member, Niamh Bhreathnach, when she was the Labour Party's Minister for Education. She published the first and only White Paper on education, charting its future direction. She introduced programmes to tackle educational disadvantage including the leaving certificate applied, Breaking the Cycle and the Early Start programmes while expanding the transition year programme and abolishing third level fees.

The progress that followed included increased participation by school leavers in third level, including those from the lower socio-economic groups. Clondalkin, in my Dublin Mid-West constituency, was one of the postal districts analysed by the Higher Education Authority for its report on who goes to college. Clondalkin's participation rates in third level increased from 12.7% in 1998 to 22.8% in 2004. More needs to be done but progress has been made. The same report found that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds stayed on in school, thanks to the very programmes introduced by Niamh Bhreathnach, in particular the leaving certificate applied programme.

In 2004, the then Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, commissioned a report on the transition year which assessed its success. It found that students who took the transition year did better in the leaving certificate and were more likely to go to college. One problem highlighted, however, was those schools which carry the transition programme need proper funding for the programmes to be successful.

I have seen the progress in education in Dublin Mid-West at first hand. I am sure my constituency colleagues, the Minister of State, Deputy John Curran, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney, and Deputy Paul Gogarty, the chairman of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Science, have also seen them. Last week I met with students from Collinstown Park community college, some of whom are in the Visitors Gallery tonight, who are here to defend the progress made in their school. They told me how valuable programmes such as the leaving certificate applied, the leaving certificate vocational, the transition year and the junior certificate programme were to them.

One leaving certificate applied student told me he did not think he would be still at school but for the programme. A leaving certificate vocational programme student told me he hoped the programme would provide him with the opportunity to go on to third level as it provides gateway subjects. Transition year students told me how the programme was an opportunity for them to mature and make better decisions about their future studies and careers. Collinstown Park community college sends many more students to third level, into jobs and apprenticeships than it did a decade ago. This is mirrored in all the other schools throughout the Dublin Mid-West constituency in Lucan and Clondalkin.

Funding for these programmes will be cut and schools in Dublin Mid-West will lose tens of thousands of euro. Many of the schools will lose two or three teachers. What will these cuts mean for individuals? The cuts will mean individuals will drop out of school. The doubling of the third level registration fee will force many others to drop out of college. Individuals who would have stayed on to participate in properly funded junior certificate support programmes and vocational leaving certificate programmes will be in danger of dropping out of school. Some schools may cease to offer the transition year because it will be too costly to run. As it was, many schools could not offer the programme because it was too costly to run properly.

There will be larger class sizes, Travellers will drop out and some schools will have to cut less popular subjects, such as physics, because they will not have the teachers to provide them. Children who need language support will lose out, as will their class mates. A local school in my constituency has informed me it will lose three foreign national TEFL teachers because of the new cap. Students will perform poorly because of larger classes and other cuts, resulting in their career and further study options being diminished.

They will be faced by all of the cuts. Disadvantaged schools and those on the threshold will be hit hardest by these cuts. They will be affected by larger class sizes, restrictions on substitution teachers and cuts in various programmes, such as the leaving certificate applied and vocational options and transition year. Many of these schools are in Dublin Mid-West, a constituency represented by the Green Party's Deputy Paul Gogarty, chairman of the Oireachtas education committee. These cuts are a mistake. We should be investing in education and building on progress. We must ensure that through investing in education we build our economy again.

I have already argued progress can be made in all social areas during harder economic times. There are examples in history where governments in hard economic times invested in education, social welfare, health and housing. Poland, which is much poorer than Ireland, is investing more in education. Ireland will lose out in economic competitiveness in the future to such countries.

The purpose of being in government is to make progress on the issues one cares most about. The Green Party, and in particular Deputy Paul Gogarty, made education one of these issues. With these cuts, the progress made in the education system in disadvantaged areas such as Dublin Mid-West, represented by Deputy Gogarty, will be reversed. The Green Party and the Government is on the wrong side of progress in education.

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