Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and I thank my colleague Deputy McConalogue for arranging to use the Fianna Fáil time on the first day back in this new year to highlight the issue of education in areas in which people suffer disadvantage. It is very important. We recognise that the Government must make choices to balance its books but it did not have to make this choice. Fianna Fáil put forward fully costed budget proposals to meet the €3.5 billion adjustment that was required. We decided in that policy to fully protect funding for education and disabilities. That could be done if the political decision was made. It would be funded by a 3% increase in the universal social charge, USC, for people earning over €70,000 a year and a higher percentage for those earning over €100,000. I suspect that the Minister and some of his Labour Party colleagues would like to have seen a 3% increase in the USC for those with incomes of over €100,000 a year. That would have prevented the need for some of these cuts, but the Minister’s right-wing colleagues in Fine Gael would not buy it. As long as the Minister’s party stays in government, it is supporting that proposal. That is why the choice was made. I accept that tough choices have to be made. We all appreciate that, but some of these choices could have been avoided by asking those who could to pay a little more. That was not done. The choice in this budget boiled down to increasing tax or making the adjustment on expenditure. Fianna Fáil said it must be fifty-fifty. Fine Gael wanted most of it to come from cuts to programmes. The Labour Party would, I am sure, have been happier with some increase in costs, but the budget was lopsided in the interests of cutting expenditure rather than increasing taxation and the only real tax increase is the new household tax that will come in during the year.

When the Government started the budget by saying it would cut programmes for people who depend on Government expenditure rather than increase tax on those who could pay a little more, it was inevitable that these hard decisions would be made. I believe the Minister and the members of his party have a social conscience and are not happy with this, but I am satisfied that the other party in government is not as concerned about it as the Labour Party or Fianna Fáil might be. We are here now because of the choices that were made on budget day.

We can all talk about macroeconomics, but I will tell my own story. Last Monday morning at 9.30 a girl aged almost 20 came to my office for two weeks’ work experience as part of the PLC course she is doing at the Abbeyleix Further Education Centre. Centres in Portlaoise, Mountrath and Abbeyleix have always asked my office and other local organisations to take somebody in for work experience. I see the value of the work she is doing and she is gaining invaluable experience, working hard and diligently in an office environment. The Minister is making her life hard. I spoke to her about her situation, which she is finding very difficult. We should not be picking on lone parents trying to complete their education and making it more difficult for them. This girl did her leaving certificate. Each of us sees these people daily and we know they are real people. We can all talk about the millions and billions and 2% cuts here and there but they translate into effects on people on the ground.

I can speak for the work being done through the further education and adult education programme in the VECs in my own county, Laois. The same applies in every other county. The work they do on the PLC course in Portlaoise College, especially the dedicated further education centre in Abbeyleix and the Youthreach programme, is invaluable. Youthreach needs more funding. Investment at that level will pay dividends because not to invest in the people who need its services will cost multiples of that funding in years to come.

Laois VEC has dedicated permanent staff to the Midlands Prison and Portlaoise prison - I do not know how many - to teach people who have been on the wrong side of the criminal justice system and are serving their sentences. In all probability - the Minister probably knows the statistics - the majority of them do not have even a junior certificate. These staff of Laois VEC are bringing their students up to FETAC level 3, the equivalent of the junior certificate or the leaving certificate applied. Some even go on to FETAC levels 4 and 5. I am sure the same applies in other counties such as Dublin where there are prisons. Great work is being done in these programmes.

The outcome of cutting the ratio for the PLCs by two to 19 will be that some courses will be dropped next year. The managers in the schools will have to choose to spread the teachers they have and the most convenient answer may be to drop a course rather than making classes too big. That will lead to further problems because the present full range of courses will not be available to the people depending on them. It is not fair to compare the ratio for PLC courses with that for schools. These people have been out in the workforce. They were tradespeople working in construction and they are coming back to further their education. They are a different cohort or group of people. It is very difficult for them to come back to the classroom and start learning again. A teenager in secondary school is running through and is part of the system and the ratio there is a very different matter. The Minister’s cuts do not reflect that difference.

The Minister made brave decisions last year and he was man enough to say he got it wrong when he made changes to the DEIS schools. He could do the same with these cuts. People will not judge the Minister on whether he made the wrong call; they will look at his track record over his period in office. If he leaves these further education and PLC programmes fully intact he will be judged as having been a good Minister for having protected those areas where there is most need and the people who are most vulnerable. It is not too late to make some of these changes even though the allowance of €300 payable to recipients of the back-to-education allowance will be discontinued. That is a very severe cut. They are the type of cuts I was discussing with the 19 year old who will be in my office tomorrow morning at 9.30 and who wants to get an education. I ask the Minister to help those who want to further their careers and education and make a good contribution to Irish society, and help them to help themselves.

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