Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

The Minister for Finance, Deputy Brian Lenihan, made the amazing call for patriotism after his budget speech, the most savage and swingeing budget ever seen in the House. That call was answered very well by 15,000 senior citizens last week. It has been answered again by thousands outside the House tonight. That is the real call to patriotism, not that of the Minister for Finance.

With these cuts in education, up to 2,000 teacher jobs will be lost and the pupil-teacher ratio will increase. Already there are 40,000 pupils in classes over 30. What will the figure be after these cuts? Ireland was the second last of all European countries in the pupil-teacher ratio tables; now it is the last. Is that a proud record to have at the end of the Celtic tiger?

There will be cuts in grants for disadvantaged schools, transition year and extra curricular activities. The library grant of €2.1 million and the free book scheme will be abolished. These cuts are outrageous. If a teacher falls ill or is away on school activities, there can be no substitution because it has been cut back by the Minister. Pupils will lose out. Hard-won gains by parents, boards of management and the teacher unions have been swept away with one hatchet blow by the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, without any consideration for industrial relations. That is not the way to do business.

Young students who are expecting to get a better education with the disadvantaged and special education grants will now not have that opportunity. Deputy Paul Gogarty, the Green Party's spokesperson on education, said last week in the House that he could not stand over some of the cutbacks in the budget. Tomorrow, he will have the opportunity to show his patriotism by walking with the Labour Party through the lobbies.

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