John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

I am delighted to support the motion put down by Deputy Quinn and the Labour Party on the chaos that will be caused in the education sector if the cutbacks announced in the budget and subsequently by the Minister for Education and Science go ahead as planned. I have been a secondary school teacher for more than 30 years and I know at first hand the difficulties that will emerge inside and outside the classrooms of this country once these cutbacks begin to bite in a couple of months time. I have been in contact with every primary and post-primary school in Mayo over the last week. The response was one of anger, dismay and fear about what is going to happen in our primary and secondary schools after 1 January. My colleagues have dealt with many of the issues already but in my few minutes I want to address the effects on the promotion of sport and extra-curricular activities as well as some specific problems in my constituency.

Over the years thousands of teachers have given of their time on a voluntary basis to organise, train, supervise and manage school football teams in inter-college competitions across the length and breadth of the country. Some of the training was done before class in the morning, at lunchtime or after school. Teachers sometimes even drove the pupils home if they missed their school buses. We are talking about a whole range of sports including GAA, rugby and soccer. It is on the playing fields of St. Colman's, St. Nathy's, St. Muredach's, St. Jarlath's, Coláiste Chríost Rí, St. Kieran's Kilkenny and others that the future all-stars, All-Ireland medal winners, soccer and rugby internationals are nurtured. It is on those pitches that they learn how to win and lose, how to cope with success and defeat. They learn the meaning of teamwork, loyalty, trust and discipline. As a teacher who trained teams to win All-Ireland competitions at schools level I know how involvement in sport helps to relieve the pressure of the academic points race. I know how self-esteem built on the school pitches helps students in the classroom and the exam hall.

The Minister stated here last night that as regards promotion of sport in our schools we have merely returned to how things were in the early years of this decade. I say to the Minister that the world has changed since 2002. No principal can risk leaving the class of a teacher unattended while he goes to take charge of a football team, as was the case in the past. Colm O'Rourke, a school principal and a top footballer in the past, was right when he stated in his column last weekend: "The days of leaving classes to their own devices while a teacher went to a football game are thankfully long gone."

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