Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy McConalogue on producing this legislation and on bringing forward this worthwhile Bill. I am not sure whether the Government proposes to accept the Bill, but I presume it will not accept it as that seems to the general policy. Since I have entered the Houses, I can only remember one Opposition Bill being accepted - one introduced by Deputy Michael McGrath. The general consensus seems to be that no matter how much merit a Bill has, if it is proposed by the Opposition, it will be rejected. Hopefully, that will not happen with this Bill and it will be accepted and go forward to Committee Stage.

As Deputy McConalogue has pointed out, the Bill proposes to instruct the Minister for Education and Skills to carry out an annual education impact study in order to quality proof any decisions he proposes to take in upcoming budgets. This is a very worthwhile proposal, because of the consequences of some of the decisions that have been taken over the past number of years. Deputy McConalogue spoke about the impact of some of those decisions. Take, for example, the DEIS schools and the proposed teacher allocations for them. There is no doubt the decision on that was taken without full awareness of the impact, as the Minister acknowledged subsequently. We are all aware of the value provided by DEIS schools to disadvantaged and marginalised communities and of the issues and problems with which these schools must deal.

There is ample evidence down through the years to suggest that the programmes being implemented and targeted at these particular schools are working and providing value for money and increased opportunities for students attending them. That is the reason that particular decision was met with such shock, anger and consternation by staff, teachers and parents. They understood the value of the specialised programmes in DEIS band one and two schools. I firmly believe that if it was not for the public outcry at the time, that decision would not have been reversed and we would be picking up the pieces ten or 15 years down the line when the impact manifested itself. If an impact analysis had been done prior to the decision, the Minister would never have put forward the proposal, which demonstrates the value of conducting an impact analysis. We need to know what the impact of such decisions will be on our education system.

This week, we discussed the Fianna Fáil Private Members' motion on further education and the change in the pupil-teacher ratio, PTR, in that sector from 17:1 to 19:1. During that debate, I said that when we say it fast, this increase does not seem much as we are only increasing it by two and bringing it into line with the post-primary PTR rate. However, when we scratch the surface, we see the impact it will have, with 200 wholetime equivalent posts being lost and from 350 to 400 job losses in the sector. Yet, we will ask the further education sector to try to continue to provide the same level and quality of education. We hope the CEOs and principals of the further education colleges will get around the table and maintain the same number of courses and protect course provision. At the same time, the same number of pupils, if not more, will try to access the sector although we expect the service to be provided with approximately 10% less resources in terms of front-line teaching staff. This is not possible.

Deputy McConalogue, myself and others have received briefings from the likes of the TUI, which have shown in stark terms the consequences of this proposed cut. If it goes ahead, we will see students who use further education as a stepping stone to higher education unable to access this service. In communities like those I represent, such as Knocknaheeny, colleges like Terence Mac Swiney community college, a post-primary school, provides further education. Knocknaheeny is one of the most disadvantaged areas in the north side of Cork city, with one of the highest unemployment rates. It is a very proud community with many good people working hard every day to try and improve it. We have a very successful further education college there which provides worthwhile courses and a service for people who left school early or who do not have the academic qualifications to go on to higher education. The service being provided helps these people get employment, move on to higher education and restores their sense of self-worth. The proposed cut will impact on this. We know the impact the DEIS cuts would have had and there was only a partial reversal of those.

Last year also, we saw a cut made in the area of the allocation for career guidance. This was almost justified by putting the onus on individual schools to deal with how the cut would be implemented, but there was little acknowledgement that some schools do not have the ability to deal with it. There appears to be no acknowledgement by the Department or the Minister of the value of career guidance and of the value of what these teachers do for students. It is not all about career advice. Career guidance teachers are almost like personal counsellors for some students and provide an outlet for students who might have personal issues at home. We know from speaking to career guidance counsellors that they deal with sensitive personal issues students bring to them. Therefore, they provide a valuable outlet to students under pressure, some of whom may even be suicidal. The Government made a decision last year which forced some schools to abandon that service or to try and make do with the resources they had.

None us denies that we face tough economic times or that there are pressures on the education budget and I would be first to acknowledge that. However, other EU member states always ringfence their education budgets in times of recession, because they know the value of education. This State is one of the few EU member states which, in times of recession, has continually chipped away at the education funding allocation. This will have a detrimental effect. This is already happening. One only needs to talk to teachers, parents and students to hear about the pressures on them due to the continual chipping away at resources which is damaging the quality of education. There is no getting away from that.

Even in times of recession, it is possible, not only to protect and ringfence education budgets, but to support them further. In the North, for example, despite all the complexities of a block grant, the allocation to the education budget was increased in May 2011 because of their understanding of the value of education. In the North also, very few decisions, if any, are taken without an impact analysis being conducted.

I have no doubt that there will be issues with it and that the Minister will find reasons not to accept it. However, I think it merits progression to Committee Stage. If there are particular issues with it, we can tease them out at that point. Even if the Bill is rejected here today, it will have been worthwhile because it has generated a debate which I hope will continue.

In recent years, a number of cuts in the education sector have been discussed in this House in the context of Private Members' business and Priority Questions. We debated and asked questions about issues such as SUSI, career guidance and DEIS in a vacuum, however, because we did not have the impact analyses that had been done. We can calculate what the effect of various cuts will be, but it is all hypothetical. We presume there will be 400 job losses in the further education sector. There is some evidence to suggest that will be the case. We should not be doing our business in the absence of an impact analysis or study, however.

We will support the proposal before the House. As I have said, there is much merit in it. I accept that issues may arise with regard to how it is actually implemented. This proposal will require an impact study to be produced before the budget, but if that does not happen until the very end of November - perhaps six or seven days before budget day - will schools have time to appeal decisions which may be taken in the budget? When Deputy McConalogue is wrapping up, perhaps he can explain how that sort of thing will happen. While I am not too sure about this aspect of the proposal, I believe the spirit and the intention behind it are worthwhile and agree that the Bill should be allowed to progress to Committee Stage for further discussion.

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