Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As a proud Irish republican, I believe that all citizens are equal and that education is a fundamental right and not a privilege. I have often heard the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, use the terminology "citizens", and it is right that he does. However, with that terminology comes its natural extension that citizens have a right to an education that takes them on the path to achieve their full potential.

The way in which Sinn Féin views education certainly is not shared, on the basis of the evidence, by the present Government or its Fianna Fáil predecessors, whose past track record and current policies are ensuring that only the more wealthy sections of society will be able to progress to higher education. This is a view that is reflected by a recent survey carried out by the Irish League of Credit Unions showing that parents increasingly struggle to pay for their children's third level education. The average monthly outgoings of a student amount to €1,000. This is the unacceptable reality, in which the increasingly punitive costs of attending college mean that in the forthcoming academic year alone, an estimated one student in 12 will be forced to drop out of his or her course because of financial pressures. Countless more aspiring students will not even be able to consider higher education as an option because of their limited income. How ironic that it is a Labour Party Minister who is overseeing and implementing such regressive cuts, which are institutionalising a two-tier education system. The financial barriers that are denying access to a third-level education contradict much of what the Labour Party is supposed to stand for. It also makes a mockery of the Government's claims to be prioritising a knowledge-based economy that supposedly is so important for our economic recovery.

In this context, I refer to the issue of masters studies. How many times have Members come across people who wish to continue their education by completing their masters degrees? However, while the Government will not fund such studies, it will pay them €188 per week to be on the dole. If one does the sums, it would cost less to allow them to continue with their education and to have a better chance of being re-employed. This single example alone demonstrates it simply does not make sense.

All this rhetoric perhaps is unsurprising and I refer to the famous signing of the USI banner. While I acknowledge the Minister has stated that he profoundly regrets so doing, nevertheless he signed that pledge and then within weeks of being in government, there was a reneging on that promise and a U-turn. The students will not forget that and each year, when they lobby the political parties, as they will again soon, they will point to that episode. This is the reason Sinn Féin has brought forward its proposals for equality budgeting because political promises can be and are broken. The only way in which to protect citizens' rights is to have equality impact assessments of budgetary measures that are in place. I note this is the Minister's party policy, against which he voted when Sinn Féin tabled the Bill to give effect to such measures. I urge the Minister to reflect on that. People today sought to have their pledges signed and Sinn Féin did so. I assure the Minister that Sinn Féin intends to honour these pledges in respect of equality budgeting if it ever has the chance to sit on the Government side of the House.

The importance of the maintenance grants cannot be overstated as approximately-----

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