Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On budget day, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, stated that education is the engine of economic growth, and I agree. When it comes to Ireland's future stability and prosperity, our education system is our single greatest asset. The Minister went on to state that this Government over the past five years has supported education but, of course, that is not the reality. The Government has effectively abolished the career guidance counsellor role and it has increased class sizes. It has imposed wide-ranging cuts to resource teachers. Higher education has seen cuts of one third and capital investment in higher education has been cut by over three quarters. What is the result of this support from Labour-Fine Gael?

Only five days ago, a mother chained herself to the gates of the Department of Education and Science protesting at the closure of her son's autism unit. In 2011, when the Taoiseach came into power, Ireland had two universities in the top 100 ranked globally. Today, we do not have one in the top 150 ranking globally. One university president described what this Government has done to the university sector as "asset stripping", and the same can be said for what has happened to the primary and secondary education systems.

Then came the budget last week. Up until now, Labour-Fine Gael has been following a Fianna Fáil troika programme but last week's budget was the Government's opportunity to set a vision for Ireland for the future. When it came to education, big claims were made in the form of 2,200 new teachers and smaller class sizes, but when one follows the money none of that stacks up. In last week's budget, of the €1.5 billion available to the Government, it invested €24 million in the entire education sector, that is, less than 2% of the budget available and less than one fifth of 1% of the education budget.

See this speech in context