Brendan Ryan (Dublin North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. Labour Party Deputies have fought hard to protect funding and support for schools participating in the DEIS programme. When cuts were announced in previous budgets, we successfully fought to have them reversed. The Minister was at the Cabinet table at that time and was party to such positive outcomes. The cuts to the school completion programme represent an under-the-radar cut to schools involved in the DEIS programme and, crucially, to DEIS pupils. We need to see these cuts halted and ultimately reversed. There is an economic recovery under way. It is slow but it is happening. People will want to see that recovery being reflected in their pockets, but it will also need to be measured in other ways, for example by reference to the manner in which we protect and support vulnerable people in our society and help those who have been let down by this country's passive system of social inclusion, education and welfare. These are very important measures from the perspective of the Labour Party.

The school completion programme is an important scheme that provides real help for children who need it. If we protect and support it now, our young people and by extension our communities will benefit from it into the future. Given that a review of the programme is under way, would it not be prudent to await the outcome and the recommendations coming from that process before the further cuts proposed for September 2014 are made? That is the essential point of today's debate. It is not an expensive scheme, but it has an invaluable impact on vulnerable children in terms of keeping them in education and ultimately offering them a more secure path in life. I believe the resources for this scheme should be ring-fenced. I am willing to argue that point with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if the Minister feels there is value in so doing and that it would assist him in his own efforts.

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