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

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on this legislation. I commend Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan and the Technical Group on bringing it forward. I pay tribute to parents, teachers and others in the Save Our National Schools group who are involved in the campaign to ensure small schools, regardless of whether they are located in Gaeltacht or rural areas or on the islands, are retained. Many such schools are also to be found in towns and cities. I pay particular tribute to Breda Fitzgerald, principal of Newtown Upper national school near Carrick-on-Suir in County Tipperary, who has been doing Trojan work in respect of this matter in recent months.

The Bill before the House is designed to protect small schools which, by virtue of providing education to a geographical, cultural, religious or non-denominational community, to a recognised Gaeltacht area and or to an offshore island, are of such importance that their closure would result in a harmful impact upon that community or area. It is also designed to strengthen the right of children to appropriate and adequate education and also the rights of teachers in the context of multi-grade teaching arrangements. This legislation is both timely and worthwhile, especially in light of the serious cuts that were announced in the budget.

One of the important matters with which the Bill deals is teacher numbers in rural schools. Using the number of children enrolled in the September of the previous year as a basis for deciding the teaching complement has given rise to serious problems for small schools over the years. The position is particularly difficult this year as a result of the cuts introduced in the budget. It is essential that a new criterion for deciding upon the number of teachers to be employed in small rural schools be put in place. The method put forward in this regard in the Bill would certainly be a good option.

As previous speakers and I have already stated, small schools effectively were targeted for cuts in the budget. These schools are the heart and soul of rural, village, island and Gaeltacht communities. The effect of the cuts to which I refer will be the forced amalgamation of small schools over a period. This will lead to many such schools in rural areas being closed. When the cuts were introduced, no account was taken of the way teachers in smalls schools operate. I refer to teachers who take a number of classes across the spectrum containing children of all abilities, to staff who provide for students with special needs, and to resource teachers. The payback in terms of giving people a good education is massive, in both the short and the longer term. As Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan stated, the payback in respect of every €1 is €5. In the long term, the level of this payback is even greater.

I am sure that, as has happened in the past, we will be informed by the Minister of State that money is tight and the resources are not available. I have stated on previous occasions - those on the Government benches do not want to listen to what I have to say in this regard - that this is an extremely wealthy country. There are huge amounts of money in the hands of very wealthy people. I refer here to the super-rich. These individuals have both significant incomes and assets. Independent reports from the Central Statistics Office and Credit Suisse show that the wealthiest 5% of people in this country own €239 billion worth of assets. A recent survey by the Central Statistics Office also shows that during the course of the recession, 90% of people have lost income. This is to be expected. In addition, some 25% of people have lost a significant amount of income. There is, of course, the 10% of people identified in the survey to which I refer who have actually increased the level of both their incomes and assets during the course of this most serious recession. These individuals do not pay any wealth or assets tax. It is time the Government obliged extremely wealthy people with significant assets and incomes to pay. These individuals must not be allowed to freeload on the backs of middle and low income earners. Effectively, the latter are paying the taxes the super-wealthy should be paying.

Significant moneys can be taxed through wealth and assets taxes to ensure these schools are properly funded and resourced.

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