Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis atá againn anocht an rún fíor-thábhachtach seo ar chúrsaí oideachais a phlé sa Dáil. Bhí sé iontach slítheánta an dóigh a thug an Rialtas agus an t-Aire na ciorruithe a chuir siad i bhfeidm i gcúrsaí oideachais. The Government introduced the education cuts in December's budget in a very sly way. We had the mantra from Government spokespersons, Ministers and backbenchers that class sizes had not changed. However, within days the Minister outlined the new staffing schedule for small rural schools which clearly indicates fewer teachers in smaller schools and more children in larger classes.

The issue of the DEIS schools will be well ventilated over the next two days. They particularly affect urban areas and schools in my constituency are not absolved from the impact of the Minister's decision. I have listened to parents and teachers in DEIS schools in Lifford, Carndonagh and other areas throughout the county who have told us about the real impacts on children's education and on the school environment. The DEIS school in Lifford will lose three teachers as a result of the Minister's proposals.

I wish to focus in particular on the Government's decision to try to force the closure of small rural schools. The Minister has made no bones about saying that the changes in school staffing schedules with four or fewer teachers has been done in order to give these schools an opportunity to consider amalgamation. I have also seen the reports from the Department of Education and Skills to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform proposing other ways to force small rural schools to close down. The impact of this on rural areas will be huge. In County Donegal it will have a significant impact because of the rural nature of my county. Some 115 of the 176 schools in County Donegal have fewer than 100 pupils. I believe that more than 60 of them have fewer than 50 pupils. Nearly two thirds of the schools in County Donegal will be affected by the staffing schedule changes the Minister has announced.

However, while the Minister increased the staffing schedule by two for schools with four or fewer teachers, Gaeltacht schools will be more severely affected. A Gaeltacht school with four teachers requires 76 pupils to maintain its four teachers. The Minister has decided to increase that by seven and he has done it retrospectively. He has told those schools they now need to find seven more pupils if they wants to retain their fourth teacher. Why did the Minister single out Gaeltacht schools for a more severe cut than that being taken by other schools? Every other school with four or fewer teachers will require two additional pupils, but the staffing schedule in Gaeltacht schools with a principal and three other teachers increases by seven.

It is not just that schools will lose teachers. The decision to allocate 0.2 of a resource teacher per mainstream classroom does not make sense. A four-teacher school will now have 0.8 of a post. The additional learning support will not be able to be amalgamated with this position and therefore teachers will have to share a position between two schools. The INTO pointed out that the resource teacher in a four-teacher school will have to travel to another school every day to provide 0.2 of a position to that school. However, within the same school there could be a pupil who is allocated five hours of learning support and the learning support person would need to travel from another school to go to that school. This would result in teachers passing each other on the roads going from school to school, providing education. As the INTO stated, the only people to benefit from this are the owners of the petrol stations along the way.

The Minister's proposals make no sense. In the past learning support and resource teachers were allowed to be amalgamated in particular for rural schools. I offer to meet the Minister and lead him through rural areas to show him how his decision will have an effect there.

Three weeks after the fact the Minister has asked for a report on DEIS schools. What educational example does that set for our children? One does not make decisions now and then ask for a report on the impact of it three weeks later. The Minister should have done his homework before the budget and should have known the impact his decisions would have on DEIS schools, learning support, resource teachers and mainstream allocation in rural schools. He should have made his decision clear and concise based on the evidence. What the Minister did was to rush in and we all know that only fools rush in.

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