Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis seo chun labhairt ar an ábhar tábhachtach seo. I welcome the opportunity to contribute briefly to this debate and will make a couple of brief points. I commend the Minister for the steps he has taken thus far and to his credit, he has been a proactive Minister in the Department of Education and Skills. I preface my remarks by welcoming the protection that has been afforded to students with special needs because they are the most vulnerable of children. This was a difficult and challenging budget but to be fair to the Minister, his staff and officials, there was no reduction in the number of SNAs or resource teaching hours, which is critical for any teaching infrastructure for any student body, as any teacher will attest. Moreover, the pupil-teacher ratio also will remain the same. This was a difficult challenge because, as has been alluded to several times in this debate, 80% of the budget is tied up in staffing costs. Consequently, it is obvious that the only way in which money can be saved is through a reduction of staffing.

Moreover, there is waste in the education process. I come from the education system and am proud of my involvement therein. I refer to those who trot out all this emotive nonsensical bland rubbish, using cheap expressions such as "vulnerable children" and similar razzmatazz. It sounds great in the politics of protest but is useless. Listening to this debate, I have not heard any constructive suggestion from any protesting politician on the other side of the House on where the money is to be saved. Anyone who thinks a country that, irrespective of any banking bailout or banking crisis, is running a deficit of €20 billion does not need to reform its education system and make savings is living in cloud cuckoo land and quite simply is not of any assistance to Members in the job they are doing.

I was delighted to be elected to this House last March with a view to being in government and to be part of a Government of reform. The education system needs reform and needs a great deal of input from all the stakeholders and all the players. While not everything has been got right thus far, many steps have been got right under these challenging and difficult circumstances. Consequently, I support the Minister in what he is doing. I appreciate the difficulties and there are some minor tweaks to be made because one cap will never fit all, which is the difficulty being experienced on the ground in individual schools. However, there are savings to be made and there is reform to be had. I support that and welcome this input from the Minister and his Department to date.

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