Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)

This is not the first occasion in the past 12 months that I have been obliged to make a plea to the Government to reverse its decision in respect of attacking small rural schools. I use the word "attacking" in a very conscious fashion. In December's budget, the Government actually increased the pupil-teacher ratio for schools with fewer than four teachers. Prior to that, the State had recognised that rural schools and gaelscoileanna required preferential pupil-teacher ratios. It also recognised those of minority faiths - Protestants and Presbyterians - who come from areas that are particularly rural and not densely populated. As a result, the schools they attend are small.

In an attempt to save money - some €1.5 million this year and €15 million in a full year - the Government threw out the three principles on which education in this State, in the context of the pupil-teacher ratio, was based. As a result, some of those who were previously employed in small rural schools have been informed that they cannot return to them in September. The Minister for Education and Skills continues to issue figures in respect of the number of schools and teachers that will be affected in this regard. Some 36 teachers from Irish Catholic schools in County Donegal were placed on the panel for the county. These individuals have been told, at the very least, that they can no longer teach at the schools in which they were previously employed and that they will be obliged to seek employment in other schools come September. This means that in 36 schools in my county, children will be taught in either larger or multi-grade classes.

It is completely wrong for the Government to try to balance the books by attacking children. We will not see the effects of what it is doing in September or, indeed, next year or the year after. Those effects will only become apparent in the long term. The decisions the Government took last December, and over which the Minister of State is probably going to stand tonight, will have massive and long-term consequences for the education of children who are dependent on the schools to which I refer.

Let us consider the way the Government has attacked Gaeltacht schools. Previously, the number of children required for a four-teacher school was 76. That will increase to 86 by 2014. Schools that want to retain four teachers must find ten additional pupils. Let us take the English language school by comparison. It must increase by only five pupils. The Government got rid of the preferential status of Gaeltacht schools and the unique identity this State gave to Gaeltacht schools by recognising the need for additional pupil teacher ratios in smaller schools because of the difficulties teachers have in passing on our language to children. This is a retrograde step and I ask the Government to pull back from the brink and look at matters in a different way. Let us not consider this as a question of how to save pennies. Let us consider how we can provide the best type of education to children for the future. If we want to build a knowledge-based economy, our children and our children's children will get the State back up off its knees. Some of them do not have the luxury of speech but all they ask for is an even break. I ask the Minister to give children an even break and to reverse the decision made in December. The Minister should agree to the principles contained in this Bill and put children first in terms of education.

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