Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)

Tá díomá agus fearg orm go mbeidh daoine ag fulaingt mar thairbhe ar na ciorruithe sa chóras oideachis, go háirithe sna scoileanna DEIS ar fud na tíre, cuid acu i mo cheantar féin, Baile Átha Cliath Thiar Thuaidh. Ta sé soiléir go bhfuil na ciorruithe dírithe ar na daoine is boichte sa sochaí seo.

The programme for Government mentions "new initiatives to deliver better outcomes for students in disadvantaged areas" and that the Government "will examine how to make existing expenditure on educational disadvantage more effective". It also states that the Government will "improve co-ordination and integration to delivery of services to the Traveller community across all Government departments, using available resources more effectively to deliver on principles of social inclusion, particularly in area of Traveller education through the DEIS programme".

It would be fair to state these are not overly ambitious aims for the development of education in disadvantaged areas and in disadvantaged communities. However, they read like the aims of another Government entirely. There have not been initiatives, better outcomes, improved co-ordination or delivery of anything save perhaps ruthless cuts. In the past nine months and particularly in the budget, the Government has only reinforced what we all know, which is that despite espoused good intentions and kind words it prioritises bailing out Anglo Irish Bank and paying off unsecured bond holders over the education of children from our most disadvantaged communities who have been failed by the State again and again. This month we will pay €1.25 billion to Anglo Irish Bank bondholders. This is one 19th of the overall €78 million in cuts planned in education. We will pay a further €3.51 billion prior to the end of the year. This is one 35th of that amount.

DEIS schools are working. Despite massive difficulties they help children who previously did not have a chance in life. They improve literacy and numeracy levels and by doing so they ensure children will go on to be more successful at second level and even third level. Continuing to third level remains the exception in areas experiencing social exclusion and economic disadvantage with Ballymun and Finglas having some of the lowest numbers of people availing of third level education. The constituency of Dublin North-West has approximately 34 DEIS schools and a large number of Traveller families, probably a higher number than the national average. The Government has a responsibility to help these children and to safeguard them and their education because it is the policy of the Government parties, continued from previous Governments, to maintain a system which increases inequality and punishes the poor rather than taking from those who can afford it. It denies them their rights to education, health care, housing and work among others.

The Minister has accepted that DEIS schools work and he stated three recent reports support this. However, his party, which has the largest number of teachers in the Dáil among its Deputies, is making these cuts. Even the thought of an attack on DEIS by a party with so many teachers is very difficult to understand. In 2012, some DEIS schools must ask children to bring in their own toilet rolls and it is getting worse.

The Minister stated that we need a review. The Government is becoming a Government of reviews, as we have had review after review particularly when a measure is unpopular. What we need is support for DEIS schools and the children who depend on them. The teachers and other staff worked tirelessly to educate in very difficult circumstances. We cannot afford to abandon these children or to fob them off with a review, as the Government did with disabled people and those on CE schemes. It is attempting to fool us by stating that cuts will be reviewed when what is proposed is breathing room in the hope that we might all forget and then not fully rowing back. This is probably the plan.

The Government and its backbenchers have a choice between putting children first or putting its recent policies first. They will not get away with this. I hope people will remember. We should remember what the founder of the Labour Party espoused 100 years ago this week, that every child should be cherished equally. If the Government Deputies will not listen to this they should remember the words of his comrade, "Beware the risen people who shall take what ye would not give".

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