Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate on this important motion I urge people to support the motion which has been placed before the Dáil by the Labour Party. I am deeply indebted to our education system for the education I received in my formative years at Ballynacargy national school and at Coláiste Mhuire in Mullingar, which is an excellent Christian Brothers school. These schools had an important impact on me. I have always acknowledged the importance of providing adequate, vital and necessary resources to cater for a young school-going population that is set to grow for a number of years to come. This growth will present challenges in terms of the provision of adequate accommodation, teacher training places and, ultimately, vital third level provision.

The critical nature of the issue of class size and the pupil-teacher ratio cannot be overestimated. The Labour Party fundamentally believes in making classes smaller. This is a vital tool in tackling disadvantage. Our primary school classes are, on average, three or four pupils larger than those in our European counterparts. It was for this reason my colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, commenced the process of reducing class sizes as Minister for Education and Skills last year even though she did not have a great deal of finance to play with. This move was widely welcomed and lauded. We anticipated, wrongly as it transpired, that this policy would be continued in the 2017 budget. It was deeply surprising that nothing was provided for a reduction in class sizes in the recent budget.

We know what it means to have children packed into overcrowded classrooms, especially at a young age. In our alternative budget, we provided for a reduction of one pupil in the pupil-teacher ratio. It would cost just €6 million, which is not an earth-shattering sum, to reduce the ratio in line with our proposal. I would say this cost could be met by taking money from the additional tax, above what was estimated, that will come in from self-employed people over the next month. We remain committed to focusing on this important parameter. We concur with the INTO's perceptive analysis of this fundamental failure in the budget. It has indicated that every week, more than 100,000 children are going into super-sized classes of 30 or more pupils. That is a severe indictment of our failure as a society and as a country to give the issue of class size the priority status it deserves. It is the Labour Party's view that class sizes should be reduced continually over time, with an ambition of reaching an average class size of 20 within five years or so. This would end the spectre of overcrowded classes forever.

The cost of education that is borne by many parents is a big issue for many people. Barnardos and other organisations regularly prepare comprehensive and detailed reports on the various aspects of this matter. The cost of schoolbooks, for example, is quite significant. During its period in government, the Labour Party provided an additional €15 million in ring-fenced funding for schools towards the establishment of book rental schemes to reduce costs for parents. This scheme succeeded in reducing such costs by approximately 80%. We expanded the school meals programme significantly and took steps to enable parents to be consulted about the uniform policies of the various schools. We proposed to increase the capitation grant funding to schools by €10 per child in 2017, at a cost of just under €10 million. We committed to increasing that sum to €20 per child in the case of any school that agreed in writing to put an end to the practice of requesting voluntary contributions from parents. The imposition of such charges can be a severe load for people to carry. A new three-year book rental scheme, at a cost of €5 million per year, must be established to give funding to second level schools to set up book rental schemes and thereby help to reduce book costs for students. As I have said, such costs can be quite significant, particularly at second level.

The spectre of the failure of the budget to increase child benefit has had an impact. Child benefit was most important in our house when I was growing up. It helped my late mother to defray the costs associated with education. This is a fundamental issue.

My colleagues will deal with the issue of apprenticeships. There is huge potential to make significant progress in this area. My colleague, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, recognised that last year when she was involved as Minister in a fundamental review of the apprenticeship system. A number of new types of apprenticeships came on stream as a result of this initiative. It is clear that apprenticeships can create new and varied career paths for young people. We should widen them. It is disappointing that this has not been done. Approximately 350 apprenticeships are available in Germany. By contrast, we have taken a conservative approach. There is no better man than the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, whom I salute, to grab the opportunity to increase the number of apprenticeships available here to 350. He will leave a lasting imprint if he does that. It will be the equivalent of delivering for Waterford again. I advise him to ignore the conservative views. I know that bureaucrats are always conservative. I ask the Minister of State to give them a shake-up. There is an opportunity to increase the number of young people getting apprenticeships. This would open up career paths, especially for women, as Deputy Burton has said. As my colleagues have set out, the Government's objective of having an expanded apprenticeship programme will not get out of the traps in the absence of a proper basis for funding such a programme. As our motion points out, "a minimal increase of 0.1% to the national training fund levy would have raised €67.1 million in 2017". It is clear that such moneys could be used to fund some of the important and worthwhile initiatives I have mentioned. We are not just proposing a motion; we are telling the Government how to get the money to fund important and vital initiatives.

See this speech in context