Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

——include the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, who has become more out of touch in 15 or 16 months in Government than Fianna Fáil did in 11 years. I met the principal of that school yesterday evening when she was up here for the protest. I expected her to talk to me about the school buildings, but instead she spoke about school books. Her school was one of the beneficiaries of the book grant. She explained the book lending scheme they had put in place, which is now gone. That is the consequence of the Minister's €7.5 million cut in school books. Just as the budget for school libraries has been cut, so too has the budget for gifted children. In addition, classes at second level have been cut, which will reduce subject choice. There will be consequences in further education where entire courses will go at a time when unemployed people require retraining. At a time when unemployment is rising, how can the Minister justify cutting 500 places from the back-to-education scheme?

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