Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

In 1997, 2002 and 2007, Fianna Fáil told bare-faced lies to the public about class sizes and has repeated those persistently since. They were not the bad years when we had no money. They were the good years when we had plenty of money. As the Tánaiste said at that time, money was coming out of the Government's ears but it did nothing about class sizes then.

The INTO, in the lead-up to the last election, conducted a fantastic campaign, involving parents and teachers, on class sizes. Unfortunately, however, when Fianna Fáil made another series of false promises to the public about what it would do if re-elected, the INTO swallowed it hook, line and sinker. I warned the INTO at the time that to be fooled once or twice was bad, but to be fooled three times was too much. Unfortunately, though, that is what happened.

I have been in this House for a long time, comparatively speaking, but I have never seen a budget like this before. This budget is aimed at children who have only eight years of opportunity in national school; children between the ages of four and 13 who have only one chance to lay a foundation for the rest of their lives.

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