Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the budget. I should like to empathise with Deputy Joe Carey, as regards something he said. He mentioned his alma mater, St. Flannan's College, Ennis, as having lost teachers. He also mentioned my former secondary school, Coláiste Mhuire, as having lost teachers and I extend my sympathy to County Clare on that basis. However, I must now don my Dublin South-Central hat in relation to education. One of the points made was that schools in DEIS areas were not to be affected. I understand from the number of e-mails I have been receiving from schools, teachers and parents since the budget that is simply not the case. While technically the DEIS schools are meant to be protected, they are losing supports such as book grants, Traveller support schemes and support for physics and chemistry in the secondary schools. Wearing my scientist hat I am appalled to think money will be pulled from physics and chemistry. We are preaching day in, day out the importance of science and technology for the future development of the country and one of the first areas to be hit is the support for physics and chemistry. How, in all honesty, does the Minister expect there will be interest and commitment for difficult subjects such as physics and chemistry in secondary schools if the support grants are to be pulled from them?

The same is true in areas such as home economics, art, choirs and orchestra, those types of additional subjects one might say that help to provide a more rounded student as against the whole academic aspect of education, which is also, of course, very desirable. However, when money is pulled from such areas one ends up with grind schools where it is the survival of the fittest and the only thing that matters is points. One will find people looking at the lowest common denominator, picking five or six subjects or whatever the minimum requirement is to get the points for a place in college or whatever. That is fine for those schools who can deal with that. It is not fine where there is leaving certificate applied and vocational, very dependent on those other subjects which create some type of more general opportunity for students who are not academically inclined and towards whom we should have the very same degree of commitment. The support has been pulled from the leaving certificate applied and vocational courses as well. They have been particularly successful in many of the disadvantaged areas where the drop out rates are enormous in many schools.

If I have time later on, I shall come back to education again, but I want in particular to look at the impact of the budget on Government supports for the arts and sport. This is an area that has not been mentioned at all. It has been significantly sidelined in terms of commentary, despite the fact that support has been very significantly reduced. This can only have a detrimental impact on the many small groups, clubs and organisations that rely on funding from the Arts Council or the Irish Sports Council. The decisions taken in this area are particularly short-sighted, similar to cuts in other areas where Departments have targeted those most in need of funding, the smaller clubs, organisations and groups that receive funding from the Arts Council and the Irish Sports Council. They are unable to raise the finances themselves and so are absolutely dependent on this type of support.

Total funding for the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism is down 22%, more than one fifth. This fact highlights Fianna Fáil's true commitment to arts, sport and tourism. Arts and sport are fine to support in the good times. They are a great place for the vanity projects or indeed, the white elephant, if I can remind the House of the dreaded Bertie Bowl. However, when times are tough this is the area that tops the queue for the chop and takes the first hit. The Government has no respect for the important and vital role these sectors play in the community. The proposed national stadium has moved from Deputy Bertie Ahern's pie in the sky Bertie Bowl, with 80,000 seats and no public transport, to a national sports campus with a 25,000-seat stadium that was committed to in the agreed programme for Government in 2007. This project has been placed on indefinite hold. It has a grant of just over €4 million for 2009 and based on that amount of funding it seems highly unlikely there will be any significant progress in the foreseeable future.

The former Taoiseach was famously fond of the Robert Putnam book, Bowling Alone, which charted the collapse of the American community. It is a very interesting book to consult in terms of what actually happened when the small sports clubs and the bridge club, for example, fell apart. The former Taoiseach's colleagues who remain in Government must be aware of the role arts and sports play in a community together — and in fostering community spirit. I spoke yesterday to a residents association which was interested in developing its own local festival, the whole purpose of which was to generate a community spirit.

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