Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)

We would not be debating these cuts if the Labour Party and Fine Gael had honoured their election commitments. It is important to recall those commitments. They were going to burn the bondholders, not another red cent would be given to the banks, it would be Labour's way not Frankfurt's way and the weak and vulnerable would be protected. The Government robbed the clothes from Fianna Fáil and are now implementing austerity policies which were also implemented by the previous Government.

These cuts are wrong and counter-productive. There is huge opposition to them throughout the country. There are meetings up and down the country. The cuts predominantly affect small rural schools but also affect minority faith schools, such as Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Gaeltacht schools. As a previous speaker said, they also affect some schools in urban areas.

Every day the media and our politicians tell us education is key to our social and economic future.

It is wrong to target young students in their formative years, and it will undermine their education for the rest of their lives. These schools are at the heart of local communities and are at the centre of all local activities, and this is an attack on rural Ireland. These proposals are proposals for the closure of small schools. Taken together with the changes in the school transport system, they mean the forced amalgamation of schools and therefore, the closure of schools.

The Minister shows a total lack of understanding of small schools and multi-class teaching. It is not the same as single class schools with sub-groups. It involves two, three and four class levels, with ages and maturity levels spanning up to four years in one classroom. Within those four year levels there are sub-groups requiring extra attention. The pupil-teacher ratio is not advantageous. It is based on the reality of multi-class teaching and learning.

Every time the Minister speaks on this issue - he did it again tonight - he picks out the small schools with 12 pupils and two teachers. This is totally misleading as he well knows. There are very few of these schools. Most schools that will lose teaching posts are the three teacher schools with 40-50 pupils and four teacher schools with 70-80 pupils.

There are alternatives. We can stop paying the bondholders and we can introduce a wealth tax.

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