Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

My colleague, Deputy Reilly, likened Government policies to "Casino Royale". I understand we may have a new casino in Tipperary North. That is, no doubt, why the dissolution of the Dáil has been delayed for another month. When they get the casino, they might put Bertie's safe into it to keep the national debt. Unlike the money he put into his safe, it may reduce overnight to a less significant figure.

The Government's politics are a joke. The Green Party, which campaigned against going into government with Fianna Fáil, is tied irrevocably to them. The disaster that will befall the Green Party is of its own doing. It could have stood on this side of the House and fought this appalling Government every day and month.

If there is to be a future for the country and if we are to reclaim our place in the world and stand shoulder to shoulder with other nations, without the IMF or the ECB on our back, let us do it with the best educated and most talented young workforce, which we have. We have received a disgraceful result in the OECD-Pisa survey, which is an international comparison of students aged 15 years throughout the world. After the boom and as we face into the Fianna Fáil bust, we are left with an appalling situation. Irish education has regressed under Fianna Fáil since 2000. The biggest fall in literacy attainment in the OECD countries is in Ireland. We are doing worse than any other country since 2000 in our literacy skills. It is not easy to accept that. It is appalling, given the situation we are in.

We need a really big shake-up of the Government and of the Department of Education and Skills. They have been sitting on their butts for too long. The Government is not at the races when it comes to making sure there are fundamental changes in our education system that encourage young people to learn more and put us back at the top, where we were. We are in an appalling situation. Yesterday, The New York Times said the results were weak, as usual, in the United States. They are, unusually, appalling in Ireland. The New York Times compared the US results to the outstanding results in all fields in Shanghai, which participated for the first time. The newspaper remembered the United States's Sputnik moment when the USSR launched a satellite into space, showing its science and technology was advancing on America's. We are having a Sputnik moment. This is our wake-up call. Ireland is falling behind. The regions that performed outstandingly in international education were Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taipei and Macau.

We have to change the way we are doing things. The reading results for low achieving boys in Ireland are serious and depressing. In mathematics, we have fallen to below the OECD average in overall performance. The proportion of top performers is dismally low, compared to our competitors. Lots of explanations come from the Minister. She even got Canadian consultants to interpret what was going on. However, the facts speak eloquently. This is a reflection on primary and secondary education, which is the very foundation of the Irish education system. We need to change, and change utterly.

This budget should be driving forward the improvements in education that are not happening. We need to look again at what is happening in many of our schools, particularly in urban areas where we have a large immigrant population. In some schools, 35% of the intake come from homes where English is not the first language. Cutbacks in education affect resources as children move up through primary school. Special resources teachers are not being provided. This means students do not perform as well as they should. A crippling burden is placed on students who do not have English as a first language and also on the students who do. I accept that the allocation of resources must be examined. However, we will never improve our scores if we allow this to happen.

Between 2000 and 2009, Ireland fell from 5th place among 39 to 17th place. More than one in six children in Ireland is estimated to have poor reading skills. A total of 17% are low achievers in reading. Almost one quarter of males received an average score which is considered to be below the level of literacy needed to participate effectively in society.

One of the key problems resulting from this economic disaster is that 180,000 people in the workforce with third level qualifications who need to be upskilled to fourth and fifth levels. This problem will be exacerbated by the policies of the current Government. In the area of mathematical education, Ireland's place has fallen from 16th to 26th place in just three years, the second biggest fall in the survey. We have significantly fewer students attaining proficiency levels higher than the OECD average, at 6.7% compared to 12.7%. Generations of Irish students will now have to pay for the disastrous decisions of Fianna Fáil Governments. This report shows students are already suffering by falling behind their international counterparts. If Ireland is to compete for jobs in the international marketplace and in the new economy this is where the fundamental changes must take place. For the short time left to her in office, I suggest the Minister re-examines the reallocations to primary education within her Department and re-examines the policy for students who are not speakers of English as their first language and the impact of this on the primary curriculum.

I have attempted to obtain clarification from the Department of Education and Skills on a matter regarding the budget but nobody in the Minister's office can answer my query. I ask that the Minister of State explain a note on the Minister's website. It refers to a change in the qualifying distance criteria for entitlement to the higher non-adjacent rate of grant for third level students. She has increased the qualifying distance from home, from 24 km to 45 km. I have been informed today by the Union of Students in Ireland that this change could affect up to 18,000 students. It will mean an adverse change in the income of each student of €1,900. They will each lose almost €2,000 in grants they would have received if the grant system for distance travelled from home remained in place. The key question to be clarified is whether this affects existing third-level students. Will such students lose that grant in the new academic year? Will the new proposal apply to existing grant holders as well as new students? This is a very serious issue which will cause problems for families and for young people who live in remote rural areas which do not have the public transport links such as exist on the east coast.

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