Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

The Minister's stock reply when issues of resources for education arise is that the country is in receivership. He uses the word "receivership" rather than "bankrupt". If the country is only in "receivership", it can become healthy again. We all believe that can happen, although much depends on the choices we now make. Taking the long view, we need to look at the outcomes for children starting school. We need to ensure that when we emerge from this awful crisis, we did not do anything to compound the problem. Otherwise, a particular cohort, owing to educational neglect, will be dependent rather than independent and their life chances will be severely curtailed.

DEIS schools are located in areas of economic disadvantage. This came about as a consequence of a policy decision on housing, namely, the grouping of people financially disadvantaged in one area. We need to ensure they can break out of that cycle. The Minister has stated many pupils are educated in non-DEIS schools in disadvantaged areas. However, these schools are also affected by a reduction in the number of resource teachers despite having a high pupil-teacher ratio. This issue needs to be addressed in our review of outcomes. It is not the case that non-DEIS schools will be unaffected, as they, too, are subject to reductions in funding. I, therefore, urge the Minister to give serious consideration to this matter, as we do not want to look back in 20 years time and ask why we allowed this to happen.

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