Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Maloney and my other colleagues. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the matter.

The further education sector that has developed in Ireland, through the VECs, is strong and successful. Colleges in my area, such as Inchicore College of Further Education and Ballyfermot College of Further Education, are great examples of what can be achieved with relatively limited resources. They have and continue to punch above their weight in giving people the skills they need to gain employment and build careers. They allow people who otherwise might not have an opportunity to pursue further education, to forge a path into employment and to gain acclaimed professional qualifications. People who perhaps had poor initial experiences of education and have struggled to secure employment are, as a result, given a second chance. Others who might have left education to find a well-paid job, for example, in the construction sector or elsewhere, can return to education and refine and upgrade their skills for the new, emerging economy.

The further education sector is responsive and flexible, working with and within communities and responding to community needs and the needs of the local workforce. It creates a vital continuum between education, training and work, ensuring that graduates leave colleges of further education with skills and certification relevant to the labour market. In the life of this Government so far, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has shown his commitment to further education and training with, for example, the creation of the education and training boards and of SOLAS. He is putting further education and training firmly within our educational framework, which is a very progressive step.

The Minister, Deputy Quinn, is also playing his part in tackling the unemployment crisis we face through the Springboard initiative and the new and very exciting Momentum initiative, which are providing thousands of places in education programmes for unemployed people.

These programmes are targeted directly at existing job vacancies and skills shortages and contain worthwhile work experience elements.

The Department of Social Protection invests nearly €1 billion each year under this heading, in community employment, JobBridge, Tús and elsewhere. In the budget the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, announced an additional 10,000 places on these schemes, including a new local authority activation scheme, which I look forward to seeing implemented as soon as possible. Further education has an important role to play in these activation measures. The Minister for Social Protection published a report earlier this week which shows that last year approximately 25,000 people received the back-to-education allowance from her Department. This allowance supports people in their efforts to return to education to gain new skills and find employment. Of the recipients, 66% attend third level institutions while the remaining 34% attend second level and PLC courses. A total of 20% of all participants on PLC courses are supported by the back to education allowance. Colleges of further education are the backbone of this provision.

The decision to increase the pupil-teacher ratio in colleges of further education by two points, from 17:1 to 19:1, is regrettable. It is has been made, however, in the context of a budget adjustment of €3.5 billion in 2013 by a Minister faced with finding savings of €90 million in his Department - a Department that I, the Minister and the entire Labour Party would rather see protected in its entirety, although circumstances do not allow that. As one of the biggest-spending Departments, in this time of national crisis it cannot be protected in its entirety. I hope that when the economic context improves, as I am convinced it will, we will be able to reverse the impact of this decision and ensure that further education will be fully resourced.

The people who laid this motion before the House today are the architects of the difficult context in which this decision was taken. The recent budget, including this measure for further education, was part of the Government’s mission to rebuild an economy shattered by Fianna Fáil, to exit the troika bailout entered into by Fianna Fáil, to balance a budget that was allowed to spiral out of control by Fianna Fáil, to create employment to replace hundreds of thousands of jobs lost under Fianna Fáil, and to undo the catastrophic damage inflicted on our society by Fianna Fáil. The Government will succeed in its mission. This measure aside, the Minister did a fantastic job in framing the education budget. Despite needing to find savings of €90 million he was able to protect the disadvantaged in our education system, and particularly the DEIS schools. I am sure Fianna Fáil will agree that this is a remarkable achievement, given the mess they left for him.

One of the arguments the Minister made yesterday was that, in this time of limited resources, it is hard to justify a preferential staffing ratio for colleges of further education over second level schools, but we must be clear that there is a radical difference between second level schools and colleges of further education, as well as the rest of that sector, which must be treated differently.

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