John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)

We should remember also that the teacher who goes with the team is doing so on a voluntary basis. He must be the minder, trainer, kit-man and medical man. He must get a referee, pay the caretaker and so on. As a teacher I always found that I could get to know my students better on the playing field and therefore got greater co-operation in the classroom. Is the Minister intending to put all that at risk by implementing these cutbacks? If cover is not provided for games there will be a negative impact on the physical and social development of students. This will lead to increased discipline problems in the classroom, as there will be no outlet for students to burn off their aggression.

We all know we are nowhere near meeting the recommendations of the report of the national task force on obesity, which states that every child should have at least 30 minutes of exercise every day. A Fine Gael survey carried out by my colleague Deputy Deenihan showed that students in a quarter of the schools surveyed received less than an hour of PE per week. The obesity crisis and the health problems associated with it will cost the State in the long term.

A couple of years ago nine secondary schools in Mayo which had been in the old DEIS scheme were excluded because of new criteria that were drawn up. Of a total of 43 schools excluded nationally, 25% were from Mayo. A similar story existed at primary level. Due to the upcoming general election, a compromise was reached whereby schools were allowed to keep some of the privileges they had. However, these have now been taken away in the budget. Some schools in Mayo must face not only class size increases but also a loss of posts for disadvantaged areas as well as home-school liaison officers. I have heard from three secondary schools in Mayo alone that they will each lose five teachers if these cuts are implemented. That is among just three schools, yet the Minister stated that only 200 jobs would be lost. How can the Minister justify this?

Last Friday I visited Craggagh national school, a three-teacher school with a wonderful atmosphere and great sense of teamwork. On 1 September 2008 there were 48 pupils on the roll, enough to retain its three teachers, but under the new guidelines this number will be reduced to two. Thus it is losing 33.3% of its staff. Each teacher will have to look after four classes. There is a perception out there that class size will only increase by one, but in this case the number in each class will increase by ten. This is not on. Small rural schools will be hardest hit. I could go on and on.

It has been asked where Fine Gael would find the resources. I do not have time to elaborate on this but I will make one simple point. What about the millions spent on prefabs? One school in Mayo spends €70,000 per year renting prefabs. There is also the perception, with regard to the Fine Gael proposals, that we want to hit teachers' salaries. Our proposal for a pay freeze for those earning more than €50,000 is aimed at protecting the jobs that will be lost under the Minister's cutbacks. I strongly commend the motion.

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