Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

Will the Minister confirm that the impact of the measures as originally announced will be the removal from the education system of 550 teachers who are providing language support, that this will result in a saving of approximately €33 million and that the words "unemployed" or "sacked" teachers will not appear anywhere else because these people are on contract? This is a cruel way of achieving a small, snappy reduction in expenditure.

I am sure the Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, who is responsible for integration, has informed him that the experience in Denmark and, in particular, the Netherlands has been that children of foreign emigrants, born in the relevant country, who have English as a second language for which they do not receive support fail to obtain the level of education qualification required to enable them to progress into the adult labour market, resulting in them becoming a constant burden on the country's social welfare system. That has been the experience in Denmark and the Netherlands. The Minister is building the foundations of permanent discrimination and racial antagonism between newcomers and residents because the former will be handicapped at an early stage in their lives, will not be able to participate fully in the Irish labour market and will be deemed to be a burden on the State.

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