Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate. Like others, I thank my colleague, Deputy Brendan Smith, for bringing forward this important motion. All of us in our constituencies have in recent weeks since the budget been contacted by parents and teachers who are worried about the future of their schools. This is as a result of a budget which unfairly targeted elements of rural Ireland. We have had an opportunity to discuss some of the other issues here on various motions in the past month. The approach of the Government to rural Ireland was never more evident than in regard to the impact this measure will have on the small rural schools, particularly those with under 86 pupils, and the way in which they are being treated and targeted.

The proposed cuts will irreparably damage the education model that has been built up by successive Governments. I do not wish to divide along party lines today. In Government, the parties opposite did good things for small rural schools, as we did when in Government. Collectively, we did much for education. We did so because we believed in the primacy of education, in its capacity to set a foundation for our young people and to give them an education foundation at primary level that allowed them to go on to be industry leaders, teachers, doctors, nurses and public servants.

To reach a capacity to allow this economy to return to a state of health, we will need the brightest and best. We will need to give them the best chance. The parties opposite lectured us on this a couple of years ago when we had to increase the pupil-teacher ratio. That was a tough decision but it was fair, honest and upfront. The Government, through its budgetary process, talked about retaining the pupil-teacher ratio and I heard the Minister say again last night that there would not be an increase in that ratio. However, there will be an increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in small rural schools.

In my constituency alone, 63 schools are targeted for these cuts. This is particularly difficult when one considers that these schools have worked well, delivered results and provided value for money. Like my colleague, Deputy Troy, I am the product of a small, two-teacher rural school, and I am delighted my principal is in the Visitors Gallery tonight. Those schools worked diligently but the fact is that if we are going to ultimately close these schools, or if we are going to strip out the teachers who are currently there, we will be offering a very different educational model.

This is deeply unfair. Many families moved back to rural Ireland to give their children the same opportunities they had. They wanted to bring them up in the rural way of life. Some of them sacrificed career opportunities in order to give their children those choices. What the Government is now doing is changing the goalposts. The Government is saying to those people who bought sites, acquired mortgages, built houses and paid their taxes that it has something different in mind for them, that it will close the school their children were attending and will impose on them an increased cost, increased journey time and a much poorer capacity to live and work in their rural communities.

These people made sacrifices because they believed in repopulating rural areas. The area I come from, covering parts of east Clare and west Clare, had suffered the drain towards the urban areas, where people travelled in order to gain employment or seek education, and they stayed there. Over the past ten to 15 years, people have moved back into those communities because they value the quality of life there. The increased journey time, the increased costs and the closure of those schools will come back to haunt all of us.

I do not want to politicise this issue. As others have said, we all have a mandate. However, we have a duty to give our children the best possible opportunity. They are the leaders of the future. The education sector is a challenging environment, particularly for teaching staff. When we consider the difficulties of operating in a multi-class environment, although the Government is suggesting that, somehow, the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio can happen and the same level of education can be attained and provided, it cannot.

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