Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

I have heard the Taoiseach and others of his Cabinet colleagues, particularly a succession of Ministers with responsibility for education, state that education is the engine for the recovery and development of our economy. However, will the Taoiseach accept that the measures he has introduced recently, particularly in the budget for 2010, run totally contrary to that understanding and that what is happening is that we are prolonging the current recession? If education is indeed the engine for recovery and development, is it not the case that taking away from education, as the Government has so savagely done, will prolong the agony and the recession will be deeper and prolonged as a consequence?

Will the Taoiseach accept the innovation task force recommendation to accelerate progress towards the introduction of broadband and fast-track the signalled Government spend under the national development plan of €435 million by 2013 and bring forward the intended date for the full roll-out and spend to 2012 or 2011? Accessibility to broadband throughout the country will itself contribute to a speeding up of recovery in terms of rural economies the length and breadth of the State.

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