Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I also welcome the Government's announcement that it has rowed back on what would effectively have been a cut. The Tánaiste suggested earlier this week that this was not a cut because the amount allocated was the same as last year but, as the Minister acknowledged, there is much greater demand and significant additional numbers of children are entering primary education. The requirement for SNAs and resources to support children with special needs must increase, therefore, to keep pace in order that there is not a de facto cut in the provision and supports for them. I welcome the fact that the Government has acknowledged this.

I do not wish to crow because I take this issue seriously but this is yet another victory for people power. The Minister recognised this saying there was intense lobbying of Labour Deputies, in particular. The INTO and the Special Needs Parents Association had also planned protests tomorrow and against that background the Government parties changed their mind. People should take inspiration from that because there is a clear pattern that where unfair and unjust cuts are opposed in a determined way by them getting out on the streets and organising a broad coalition to say, "That is not acceptable. We are not putting up with this and we intend to fight it", it can yield results. It yielded results regarding the planned cuts to DEIS schools provision, the plan to sell off Coillte's harvesting rights and in special education needs provision. I do not say that glibly or flippantly.

The Labour Party has employed a logic since entering government in imposing what the Minister often frankly acknowledges are unacceptable cuts to justify that approach by saying it is better to be in government to do what one can rather than to be on the outside protesting about it. This issue shows that is not true and we are better off fighting externally through people power, as the parents of children with special needs have done, to force Governments to accept the cuts are unjust.

The problem with this tremendous victory, which is a welcome acknowledgement by the Government that what was proposed was unacceptable, is that the Minister has admitted he will have problems elsewhere in his budget. Overall, education cuts will still occur against the background of the Government's commitment to the troika. That is also unacceptable. I do not know where the Minister will make the cuts but it is difficult to imagine them being anything other than unpalatable and unacceptable whoever is hit. I cannot see how cuts would be good to any element of the education budget. Sometimes the Government tries to package cuts as reform but in reality, particularly in education, I cannot see how they can be justified. The Labour Party should not be a party to these cuts and its Members should be out with the people.

They should be out on the streets fighting this injustice and arguing that we should not be paying the debts that were incurred as a result of the type of disgusting behaviour in which, as we have now explicitly seen, these bankers were engaged. This is the flipside of the activities of these gangsters in Anglo Irish Bank. Why are any cuts acceptable against that backdrop?

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