Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I will try to address all aspects of education including from 4th level down to primary level. Last week I received a brochure with smiling photographs of the Minister for Education and Science, the Tánaiste, and the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Jimmy Devins, called Towards a Framework for Researcher Careers which included the following vision statement: "To make Ireland by 2013 internationally renowned for the excellence of its research and to the forefront in generating and using new knowledge for economic and social progress within an innovation driven culture". In the meantime we heard the budget announcement that the two research councils, namely, the science, engineering and technology council and the humanities and social sciences council, must reduce the number of awards granted. The budget for research and development activities is down by 31%, which reveals much about the Government's commitment to the knowledge economy. This addresses 4th level education.

In third level education I refer to the capitation fee increases from €900 to €1,500. There is no provision for increases in student maintenance grants, which will force students already on the margins out of a place in third level. The reduction in provision of 500 places on the back to education initiative will exclude people who are struggling to improve their skills in order to get back to employment.

I am bamboozled by the differing versions bandied about by the Minister for Education and Science of the numbers of teachers who will be lost at primary and second level. The numbers have a touch of Alice in Wonderland about them. They seem to mean whatever the Minister wants them to mean. However, it is certain that the numbers of teachers at second and primary level will be significantly less next year than this year.

The removal of grants for subjects such as physics, chemistry and home economics and for options such as choirs and orchestras will turn our schools into, at best, grind schools, with a very narrow spectrum of subjects from which to choose and where survival of the fittest will become the norm. What happens to the schools that have been running such good programmes as the leaving certificate applied and vocational programmes, which concentrate on extracurricular activities, and which recognised and cherished this aspect of learning as part of the development of the student, where values other than academic values have a very important place?

What will happen to sport in schools? Deputy John O'Mahony has already eloquently described the consequences in this area. It will be impossible for schools to run sports programmes with the reduction in teacher numbers. Furthermore, the Minister for Education and Science told me recently that the Department has no fix on the number of schools that have physical education facilities. Why does the Minister not know and why can he not find out? I know the answer to this question, it is because the policy in this area is a sham and many primary and secondary schools do not have even the most basic physical education facilities. In the meantime the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, pays lip service to the importance of the development of students' social skills, their health and fitness and the value of sport in the community.

In some cases the commitments and promises for school buildings were first made more than ten years ago. I realise I sound like a broken record asking about the physical education hall for Loretto College, Crumlin, along with promised extensions for a school in Inchicore, for primary and second level schools in Crumlin, for Templeogue second level schools and class sizes for boys and girls primary schools in Terenure. Instead of meeting any of these promises, the budget will result in an increase in class sizes. Schools will lose teachers, teachers will lose jobs and children will lose their chance of a decent education. There is no sign of a sod being turned anywhere for a new school extension or PE hall in my constituency.

The removal of the book and library grant, the withdrawal of substitution cover, the cap on allocation of language support teachers and support for Traveller children will do irreparable damage to the chances of many children. Parents will be asked for more and more subventions to pay for the supposedly free education of their children. Does the Minister have any idea how difficult it is for schools to ask parents for one more subvention, or how difficult or impossible it often is for parents to come up with the money?

We woke this morning and heard the Green Party stunt man demonstrate how to be in government and in opposition at the same time——

See this speech in context