Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I agree with Deputy Donnelly. It is very hard for me to hold my temper when I hear the calculated response from the Government the Minister of State represents in trying to play a three-card trick and claim there is not a cut. One of today's newspapers highlighted the case of the Sacred Heart senior national school in Killinarden in Tallaght which applied for 90 resource teaching hours for September but has been given only 63 hours - the same as this year - despite having four more pupils with this entitlement. This year the school has seven special needs assistants, SNAs, which will be cut next year to six even though there are more pupils with an entitlement. That is plainly a cut. The Minister of State cannot dress it up as anything else.

I received an e-mail from Liscarroll national school in County Cork. One particular student because of his needs attends school solely for his resource hours times which were already cut this year. This student will now require to stay at home even longer because of the cuts imposed. I hope the Labour backbench Deputies will stand up for the rights of these children as much as they are standing up for the rights of the Seanad next door that should be put in the dustbin of history. The same set of Deputies are not backing what is needed desperately to support these young children and their parents. It is scandalous to see this happening and we see no outcry from those backbenchers who are supposed to be defending children's rights.

See this speech in context