Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I am an urban Deputy from Dún Laoghaire but I commend the Save Our National Schools campaign and all the parents, teachers and children who have come from all over the country, including Leitrim and Donegal, to fight and defend their small schools. I say to them, lest they be depressed at the responses they have heard from the Government side, that they should keep up their fight because the Government is worried. It hopes these people will go away but they should not and should keep harassing those in power.

In many of the responses we have heard from the other side, there has been a subtle attempt to play the country against the city and the big schools against the smaller institutions. Those people in the small villages and towns who are fighting for their small schools are doing so for the entire country and the education system. Everybody interested in defending that education system, whether they are children in big or small schools, in the city or country, has an interest in supporting these people in the fight for their small schools. If this Government gets away with attacking education or closing schools in one place, it will move very quickly to do the same elsewhere. I know big schools in urban areas are under massive pressure as well from the same agenda of cutbacks.

The Government's actions make no sense whatever, despite attempts to spin it as a positive. These are cutbacks, pure and simple, to obey the diktat of the troika. Some on the other side have argued we are exaggerating and full of hyperbole. Some years ago, a Deputy stated:

As far as I am concerned, these cuts will do irreparable damage. If ever cuts were made in the wrong place, these are them. These cuts represent a life sentence for children, their parents and their grandparents.

Who said these words but the current Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, in 2008. He was responding to Fianna Fáil education cuts. Was that hyperbole or exaggeration? Of course it was not and he was absolutely right. Now he is trying to justify the unjustifiable, and the consequence will be to rip the heart from rural communities. It will affect small schools in rural communities that are under massive pressure and which have lost significant numbers. They are literally hanging on for dear life. These communities will be under serious threat and if the Government takes away the small schools, it will rip the heart from them. The possibility of these communities disappearing will become very real and it will be a major attack on what is unique and special about an Irish culture of small village and town life in rural areas. It is absolutely disgraceful and this action will be counter-productive at every level.

There will be no savings as if amalgamations are to come about; there will be associated costs. There will also be transport costs and we will have to provide prefabs and refurbish the larger schools. That will cost money in any event. It is sickening that the Government is slipping in the language of the market and commercial viability to educational matters. Education is not about costs or financial viability but rather the future of our society. It is about young people and prospects for recovery.

The Government has argued there is no pot of gold and we do not have any money but it is telling untruths. I received an answer to a parliamentary question today from the Minister for Finance indicating that the top 10,000 earners in the country earned €6 billion in 2011. Their average earnings were €595,000 each per year and they paid an average of 29% tax. While the rest of the country is being savaged, these people are using tax loopholes to avoid paying their fair share. If the effective tax rate on the 10,000 richest people in the country could be raised, more than €1 billion could be generated and they would still have average earnings of €295,000 per year. They would still be super-rich but we would have an extra €1 billion that could ensure small schools would not suffer cuts. The nasty austerity attacks on the vulnerable sectors of our society would be unnecessary. The Government should protect our small schools and go after the super-wealthy in this country.

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