Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

As a debate goes on people change what they will say and that has clearly happened today. I listened yesterday and today to Deputies on the Government side telling us how they were in classes of 35 when they grew up. One said he was in a class of 40. Let us analyse that because we all know what it is. In here we see those who survived the classes of 35 or 40. We need to find out how many people in such classes left school unable to read and write, how many got a worthwhile job, had to emigrate or never got to enjoy the things we enjoy every day because they cannot participate at a functioning literate or social level. We know the answer because we know how many attend the National Adult Literacy Association, NALA, every year. We know how many people in our communities sign up for literacy courses every week. That is what the Government wants us to go back to.

There is no such thing as withdrawing these cuts in two years time because in two years' time a current five year old will be seven or eight. The period in which students learn to read and write is that short span and it will be past. That eight year old child will then be desperately seeking a place with a remedial teacher, who will have doubled his or her numbers and who will have no place for him or her. This is not something we can do for a short period of time and then readjust; we cannot get that time back because a child's life does not stand still. As Barnardos rightly says, a childhood lasts forever. That child will grow into an adult and, if lucky, will have parents and a determined cohort of people around to ensure he or she has the skills to survive into adulthood. However, a small group will not get those supports.

This Government insisted children with special needs go into mainstream education, and that is very important, but with supports. It has suspended the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act, which gives children with special needs support in mainstream education. Those children will flounder and their parents will go out there, determined, once again. These parents are tired. They fought and fought and spent years campaigning to have these special needs supports put in place for their children. These have now been suspended. The report has been with the Government since 2006, yet this Government did not see this catastrophe coming down the tracks.

They never had any intention of putting it in place. It is not about this particular crisis — the Government never intended to do it.

What will the Minister for Education and Science say to the schools in Cork that are desperately trying to keep their heads above water? One particular school, where 49% of pupils are in need of English language tuition, is about to lose two teachers. What will he say to the child in the 35-pupil classroom or to the child that Mr. Michael McDowell insists we need because a little bit of inequality is good for us? This Government will ensure that we have that little bit of inequality for the rest of our lives at least.

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