Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)

I greatly welcome the Minister's initiative to review the impact the proposed loss of posts in DEIS schools would have, although it would result in relatively few posts being lost in County Clare with at least one post, which was proposed to be lost, being reviewed. A post in the Convent of Mercy school in Kilrush was under threat and I greatly welcome that it will be reviewed.

I reiterate what Deputy Lyons said yesterday. This party, as it prepares for its centenary year, takes very seriously a pledge made by our political predecessors in 1916 to cherish all the children of the nation equally. Our party, unlike the party which proposed the motion, does not differentiate between children of this nation in Northern Ireland in respect of whom it sees fit to cuts posts, and children south of the Border in this State, who are to be used merely as a political football.

I bring to the attention of the Dáil the fact that Sinn Féin rightly points out that the budget which is allocated in Northern Ireland is determined by a Tory government. What Sinn Féin failed to point out is that the Tory government just like the troika has very little interest in how that budget is spent and it is up to its Ministers in Northern Ireland to determine how the budget is spent just as it is up to Ministers here to determine how our budget is spent. In Northern Ireland its Minister sees fit to cut education posts whereas here we are doing everything possible to avoid cuts, especially cuts in DEIS schools and disadvantaged areas because we recognise that to cherish all the children of the nation equally, it is necessary to provide extra teaching posts for children from disadvantaged areas to break the cycle of disadvantage.

I recall for the information of the Dáil that it was a Labour Party Minister for education who first introduced preferential rates of teachers for children in disadvantaged areas. That is a policy this party in government intends to continue.

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