The following motion was moved by Deputy Charlie McConalogue on Wednesday, 16 January 2013:That Dáil Éireann: agrees that: — Further Education and Training (FET) is a hugely important sector that provides an important educational pathway for unemployed, disadvantaged learners and second chance learners to access specialist labour focused courses and to secure employment; — the FET sector has a crucial role providing education and training for people that the traditional education system has failed and this has been unfairly targeted and cut in Budget 2013; — Budget 2013 will cut up to 500 positions from this vital service and will increase the pupil-teacher ratio and reduce the training allowances for further education and training scheme participants; and — the cuts to the FET sector are socially and economically regressive affecting the unemployed and the most marginalised learners in our education system; and calls on the Government to: — reverse these regressive and unfair cuts as unemployment is at 14.6% and youth unemployment at close to 30% and these people need the opportunities that the further education sector offers so that they can re-enter the labour market; — ensure that no courses will be cut from the FET sector, all student applications will be dealt with and no teaching post will be lost; — commit to tackling educational disadvantage and putting it at the centre of Ireland’s education policy; — publish any impact assessment that was carried out by the Department of Education and Skills into the impact of the cuts on the provision of courses within the FET sector; and — commit to carrying out an impact assessment in relation to all future decisions on changes to staffing schedules so that the quality of services to students will not be jeopardised.

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