Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

I have raised this matter with the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, and it was also raised with the Taoiseach yesterday. I hope it will be a case of third time lucky today. The Tánaiste claims wrongly that the budget was balanced, that it does not have negative consequences for women and children, in particular, and that the pupil-teacher ratio is left untouched. However, when one drills down into the detail of this nasty budget, one discovers that 428 teaching posts, in the most disadvantaged schools in the most disadvantaged communities across the State, are to be cut.

I understand the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has explained this away with the rationale that he does not have a magic wand. The Tánaiste has said that where measures have unforeseen consequences, the Government has shown willing to reconsider them. This vicious cut has foreseen, predictable consequences for children living in the inner city of Dublin, in Cork, Inishowen, Limerick, Waterford - places the Tánaiste knows full well have suffered the consequences of intergenerational poverty, unemployment and a plague of drug misuse.

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