Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

It is part of the normal processes undertaken by all Departments on selected areas of expenditure and is being conducted in line with the standard procedure for value for money reviews. As the report was initiated by a Fianna Fáil Minister, I trust the party will not now respond by creating fear among communities about a process it initiated. I expect that the report of the review should be available to me in the next eight weeks. When it is available, it will be published and considered by all of us. If the Deputies like, we can have a debate about it in this House.

Among the issues which will be taken into account in that debate are questions such as availability of diversity of provision, ethos of schools, parental choice, the language of instruction, travel distances, transport costs and the impact of schools on dispersed rural communities. These are problems which are not unique to Ireland. They are being faced by our neighbours in the North and across the water on the island of Britain. The review will examine the locations of small schools relative to each other and to other schools of a similar type. It will also examine the costs of running small schools and the educational outcomes associated with small schools.

It is also necessary to consider the needs of local communities and wider social and cultural factors. Public consultations were conducted as part of the review in order to obtain the views of stakeholders. A very large response was received and a common theme from the submissions from the public on the review was the important role which we, on this side of the House, recognise rural schools play in the social fabric of rural communities. This is something of which we are all fully aware.

The value for money review is simply about evaluating all the facts to inform future policy in this area. Educational quality for the students must be one of the main criteria in any consideration of primary school size. However, it is important that staffing levels in our small schools are set at an affordable and sustainable level, in particular in these very difficult and challenging times.

I am sure many Deputies have fond memories of their own time in small schools when class sizes were much larger. I suggest they are more likely to remember the name of their school principal or teacher and the quality of education they provided rather than the number of pupils who sat beside them in the classroom. When the review is published, I intend to lay it before the Houses to give Deputies and Senators an opportunity to debate it.

As a member of the Labour Party, building and protecting our public services has always been one of our core beliefs. However, we also have to ensure that our public services are affordable and sufficiently flexible and adaptable to meet the needs of Ireland in the second decade of the 21st century. In essence, we have to be able to achieve more with less, which every household in the country is currently battling to do.

The Government is committed to achieving the necessary savings in public spending required by reducing the overall number of public servants. That means improving our health system with fewer nurses and doctors, maintaining our infrastructure with fewer engineers, and educating our children with fewer teachers. At a time of great strain on our public finances, we have to ensure that the valuable but limited resources available to the education system are used in the best possible way. As we have stated in the amendment to the motion, the Government is trying, as best as possible, to protect front line services in the education sector at a time of rapidly rising enrolments.

I reject the sensationalist claims contained in the Opposition motion. I also reject the sensationalist noises that are coming from certain meetings around the country where facts are not part of the discourse.

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