Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The cuts the Government is planning to impose on the further education sector are retrograde, stupid and defy any logic. The Government regularly claims that its priorities are to create jobs, re-skill and retrain those who have lost jobs in order to prepare them for a return to employment and to protect the vulnerable against the impact of austerity and cuts. The cuts in the further education sector fail having regard to all of these priorities and do precisely the opposite to what the Government claims it is committed to doing because the further education sector caters for some of the most disadvantaged communities in society, those who have lost their jobs as a result of the economic crisis and who are in difficulty and need to be re-skilled and retrained in order to have some chance of returning to employment.

The cuts being made will also lead to the loss of existing jobs, the loss of approximately 500 temporary jobs and up to 200 permanent jobs. The cuts make no sense whatsoever. The range of courses that will be available to people who are seeking to re-skill or retrain or who are not candidates for university will be degraded and reduced, further reducing the opportunities for people who find themselves in this situation. Therefore, I urge the Government to rethink its position urgently. The further education sector provides a significant service for society, particularly the most marginalised, and is a key part of any serious attempt to chart a way out of the unemployment crisis. The Minister should reverse the cuts.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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On numerous occasions I have said the Government is a job destruction government. This proposal is another indication of this.

There are fewer jobs in the economy now than there were when the Government came to power. The Government's economic programme for the next three years which it set out last November is based on a net decrease in the number of jobs in 2012, no increase in 2013 and a very small increase in 2014. Of course, the 2014 figure is a target. These proposals run counter to the effort to get the economy back on its feet and people back into employment. They will lead to a reduction of 500 in the number of jobs in the economy. Some 500 teachers, many of whom are in part-time or temporary positions, will lose their jobs and join the dole queues at an additional cost to the State.

Approximately 38,0000 students are catered for in this sector which is being targeted for cuts, even though it is hugely important for the retraining, re-skilling and upskilling of people who need to gain employment. Some 30% of the students in question are on back to education courses. A further 10% are participating in vocational training opportunities schemes. More than 50% of these students are being upskilled on various schemes. This measure will ensure fewer courses will be available to those who lose their jobs and wish to return to education. It runs directly counter to the suggestion the Government intends to create jobs. There is huge productivity in the sector. The number of students already exceeds by over 5,500 the number who are supposed to be catered for in it. The teachers are very productive. As I said, they cater for an additional 5,500 students and do a great deal of administrative work on these courses.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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We already know the benefits of having a well educated and well trained workforce. This is of increasing importance as we strive for economic recovery. That is why it is so difficult to understand the logic behind the decision to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio across the board. While the increase in the ratio from 17:1 to 19:1 might not seem like a major change when it is reported, it is important to state it will have a major impact. The impact of the increase in the pupil-teacher ratio in the further and continuing education sector, in particular, will differ significantly from the impact a similar increase would have at second or third level. A typical further education course involves several modules taught by people from different professions. A course might have to be taught by a qualified instructor in that field in order for it to be recognised. It is not simply a matter of asking the remaining instructors to share the workload. If the instructor goes, the entire course might be discontinued, which would narrow the choices of students.

The Teachers Union of Ireland has estimated that the increase which has been announced will directly result in the loss of some or all of the hours of 500 people. The equivalent of 200 whole-time posts will be lost. We know that the further education sector embraces courses that add to further education in the wider sense. I refer to areas such as computer literacy, enhanced technical programming and multimedia skills, all of which have benefits. People involved in the technology sector keep telling us that there are jobs available in it. Given that the Government keeps going on about its jobs strategy, it seems illogical that it is cutting the provision of training to produce people to fill jobs in this sector. It just does not make and needs to be reversed.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The decision to impose cutbacks on the further education and training sector is an extremely retrograde step. It flies in the face of the Government's Action Plan for Jobs which was announced with great fanfare last year. The plan linked economic recovery with the development of skills in the workforce. It included a commitment to give those who have been on the dole for more than 12 months priority access to places in the further education and training sector. According to those who work in the sector, however, the cuts will have a devastating impact. As my colleagues said, it will lead to a loss of up to 500 jobs, or the equivalent of 200 whole-time posts. It will have a particular effect on part-time teachers who bring specialist knowledge to specific courses. These specialists cannot be replaced by fixed-term teachers who do not have the specialist knowledge needed. This will result in a substantial decrease in the number of courses offered.

The Teachers Union of Ireland suggested yesterday that a college with 1,000 students could lose the courses being undertaken by 400 of these students. The Inchicore College of Further Education will lose five teachers if the pupil-teacher ratio is increased from 17:1 to 19:1. The loss of so many teachers would decrease subject choice and remove specialist options from various courses. It would lead to losses of guidance hours, the cancellation of courses, decreases in enrolments and reductions in the number of support hours in language and general courses. The Teachers Union of Ireland has made the point that these reductions will inadvertently target areas of disadvantage in Dublin7, Dublin 8, Dublin 9, Dublin 10 and Dublin 12. Other areas that particularly need support will also be affected.

The Action Plan for Jobs allocated €20 million for new education and training programmes. The bulk of this money is going to private companies that are running programmes and courses originally developed in the public sector by further education colleges in the post-leaving certificate sector. The further education sector has been very innovative in responding to the need for new skills and new employment demands in the economy. When this cut is considered, with the scrapping of the cost of education allowance and the increase in college fees, it is clear that it will exacerbate our society's move towards the position where access to higher education is not a right for all but the preserve of a privileged few. While I support the motion, I question the motives behind it.

Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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My contribution will be based on my experience as a second level teacher who was closely involved with local post-leaving certificate colleges such as Coláiste Dhúlaigh, the further education colleges in Killester, Marino and Dún Laoghaire and Coláiste Íde. I acknowledge the work of my colleagues in these colleges who saw the gaps and did the work to draw up the courses provided, in which there is great variety. Some amazing opportunities are offered. I also acknowledge the hard work done by the college authorities in securing accreditation for these courses, which was not easy because they had to go through some rigorous steps. I refer, in particular, to the tremendous amount of work done to draw up progression routes with the British colleges which were the only ones to buy into this process in certain years. In more recent times these colleges have worked with the institutes of technology. In my own area Dublin City University has been very receptive to progression from post-leaving certificate colleges.

I always encouraged my students to consider post-leaving certificate courses as their plan A or plan B. Having attened many open day events with them, I know about the work done on such occasions. I always reminded my students to ask where people went after they did post-leaving certificate courses. The statistics in that regard were very positive. Many went directly into employment. They did not need to attend further education courses because they had secured particular qualifications. I support the ladder route introduced by the post-leaving certificate colleges whcih has been absolutely amazing.

Second-chance education is even more important today. We are familiar with the statistics. While I do not want to see anybody losing his or her job or any course being withdrawn, I am probably the only Deputy on these benches who does not think post-leaving certificate colleges should have a more favourable pupil-teacher ratio than secondary schools. Having said that, I accept that these colleges need more help in the guidance area. We are aware of the usual situations and difficulties encountered by pupils. These colleges also have to deal with a range of issues relating to those who have returned to education. I refer to lone parents, social welfare and housing issues, for example.

Friends of mine have told me that each post-leaving certificate college usually supports between 100 and 140 students each year as they take the UCAS route. They help with references and personal statements as part of that process. Guidance counsellors also have to do extra work to assist students who are making CAO applications. There is a need for guidance in the post-leaving certificate sector. If we are serious about tackling educational disadvantage, we have to invest resources at primary level and even before that stage. If we do not get it right, it will be more difficult to do so at a later stage.

I will conclude by mentioning a statistic. In certain areas of Dublin Central only 18% of people advanced beyond primary education. That is a scandal. We have to look at that issue again.

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to address this issue and to debate this Private Members' motion. Yesterday, I was very happy, in this Chamber, to laud the leader of Fianna Fáil for his work during his time as Minister for Health and Children, particularly in regard to the tobacco legislation of that time. Today, regrettably, I have to criticise the same Deputy and his party for what I consider a pointless and insensitive Private Members' motion. I am opposed to this motion because it is the strong opinion of the Government, as well as my opinion, that we must and will continue to protect front-line education services in primary and second level schools.

I know the value of adult education and the role the further education sector plays in our society today. I also know the damage that has been done to our economy and to the education sector, in particular, by Fianna Fáil-led Governments over the past 14 years.

I want to place on record the excellent work VECs do throughout the country in providing places for those who want to return to education or post-leaving certificate courses. In excess of 30,000 pupils are already availing of VEC courses which contribute greatly to them having an opportunity to return to the workplace, change career or get an excellent qualification, even though they may have left school early in life.

I want to refer to some recent experiences in the Lucan, Palmerstown and Ballyfermot areas of my constituency, where I saw headlines stating "Ballyfermot VEC College to lose 9 teachers". However, when one goes on to read the actual story that is printed, what is stated is that the principal is readjusting staff and there is every possibility there will be no loss of teachers. It was reported that six teachers could be lost on post-leaving certificate courses in VEC colleges in the County Dublin area. Again, upon a review of this story, it now seems clear to me and to the Department of Education and Skills that, with adjustments, there will be no loss of teaching posts.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, like all other Ministers, has an exceptionally difficult job to find savings in the 2013-14 budget. Today, we need to ask ourselves why the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has to do this. The reason is very simple. Education, like other sectors, has suffered because of the actions of the previous Fianna Fáil-led Governments over a 14-year period. It is Fianna Fáil which recklessly brought this country to economic ruin.

I am not sure whether teachers, adult education-goers or, indeed, union representatives fully appreciate how close this country came to bankruptcy. I recall the Minister, Deputy Quinn, when speaking in this House last year, stated that Michael Collins had more resources and better opportunities at the foundation of the State than our current Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. I believe education is one of the keys to getting us out of the current economic crisis. I am a huge advocate of adult education and, from the many different experiences in previous careers and, in particular, from working as a community volunteer in my constituency, I know the contribution that night school, back to education courses and mature student availability in universities have played in the improvement of individuals' quality of life and opportunity in both changing career and developing their own self-esteem and their own knowledge base.

This time last year, there were pickets and protests outside the gates of Leinster House because of what were then seen to be difficulties with the pupil-teacher ratio and SNAs. This year, it is PLC courses and VEC funding that get the attention from the Opposition, particularly Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin. In the circumstances, I believe this represents nothing other than political opportunism to clutch at any issue that will give them the opportunity to increase their popularity in the opinion polls - short-term gain indeed.

The Minister, Deputy Quinn, has my full support in his efforts to ensure that every person seeking a place in school, college or university will have an opportunity for education. However, this has to be measured so we continue to protect the most vulnerable and ensure that savings and budgets are met, given what this Government inherited from the Administrations of the previous 14 years.

In conclusion, I am very confident that the CEOs of our VEC colleges and institutes of technology have the capacity to reorganise courses, to take into consideration natural wastage, retirement and so on, so there will be no loss of teachers and no reduction in the range of courses and subjects available. That is what matters most. The CEOs of VEC colleges and the principals of our colleges have the capacity to work with the Department to meet the challenges that were inherited by the Minister, Deputy Quinn. Therefore, I reject this opportunistic and irresponsible proposal put forward by Fianna Fáil once again.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Michael Conaghan.

Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour)
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A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, is it normal for Members to put down a Private Members' motion and then not turn up to the debate, although amendments have been put down? What is the point in continuing? Is this normal?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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There will be a vote at the end of the debate.

Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour)
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What is the point of it?

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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Why do we not vote on it now?

Derek Keating (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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In the ten seconds I have remaining, I want to put on record that there is not one, single Member from Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin or the Technical Group here in Dáil Éireann to respond. I thank Deputy Maloney for raising that.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has made the point. We do not want to take the time of those who are present. I call Deputy Conaghan.

Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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I agree with Deputy Maloney and my other colleagues. I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for the opportunity to speak on the matter.

The further education sector that has developed in Ireland, through the VECs, is strong and successful. Colleges in my area, such as Inchicore College of Further Education and Ballyfermot College of Further Education, are great examples of what can be achieved with relatively limited resources. They have and continue to punch above their weight in giving people the skills they need to gain employment and build careers. They allow people who otherwise might not have an opportunity to pursue further education, to forge a path into employment and to gain acclaimed professional qualifications. People who perhaps had poor initial experiences of education and have struggled to secure employment are, as a result, given a second chance. Others who might have left education to find a well-paid job, for example, in the construction sector or elsewhere, can return to education and refine and upgrade their skills for the new, emerging economy.

The further education sector is responsive and flexible, working with and within communities and responding to community needs and the needs of the local workforce. It creates a vital continuum between education, training and work, ensuring that graduates leave colleges of further education with skills and certification relevant to the labour market. In the life of this Government so far, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, has shown his commitment to further education and training with, for example, the creation of the education and training boards and of SOLAS. He is putting further education and training firmly within our educational framework, which is a very progressive step.

The Minister, Deputy Quinn, is also playing his part in tackling the unemployment crisis we face through the Springboard initiative and the new and very exciting Momentum initiative, which are providing thousands of places in education programmes for unemployed people.

These programmes are targeted directly at existing job vacancies and skills shortages and contain worthwhile work experience elements.

The Department of Social Protection invests nearly €1 billion each year under this heading, in community employment, JobBridge, Tús and elsewhere. In the budget the Minister, Deputy Joan Burton, announced an additional 10,000 places on these schemes, including a new local authority activation scheme, which I look forward to seeing implemented as soon as possible. Further education has an important role to play in these activation measures. The Minister for Social Protection published a report earlier this week which shows that last year approximately 25,000 people received the back-to-education allowance from her Department. This allowance supports people in their efforts to return to education to gain new skills and find employment. Of the recipients, 66% attend third level institutions while the remaining 34% attend second level and PLC courses. A total of 20% of all participants on PLC courses are supported by the back to education allowance. Colleges of further education are the backbone of this provision.

The decision to increase the pupil-teacher ratio in colleges of further education by two points, from 17:1 to 19:1, is regrettable. It is has been made, however, in the context of a budget adjustment of €3.5 billion in 2013 by a Minister faced with finding savings of €90 million in his Department - a Department that I, the Minister and the entire Labour Party would rather see protected in its entirety, although circumstances do not allow that. As one of the biggest-spending Departments, in this time of national crisis it cannot be protected in its entirety. I hope that when the economic context improves, as I am convinced it will, we will be able to reverse the impact of this decision and ensure that further education will be fully resourced.

The people who laid this motion before the House today are the architects of the difficult context in which this decision was taken. The recent budget, including this measure for further education, was part of the Government’s mission to rebuild an economy shattered by Fianna Fáil, to exit the troika bailout entered into by Fianna Fáil, to balance a budget that was allowed to spiral out of control by Fianna Fáil, to create employment to replace hundreds of thousands of jobs lost under Fianna Fáil, and to undo the catastrophic damage inflicted on our society by Fianna Fáil. The Government will succeed in its mission. This measure aside, the Minister did a fantastic job in framing the education budget. Despite needing to find savings of €90 million he was able to protect the disadvantaged in our education system, and particularly the DEIS schools. I am sure Fianna Fáil will agree that this is a remarkable achievement, given the mess they left for him.

One of the arguments the Minister made yesterday was that, in this time of limited resources, it is hard to justify a preferential staffing ratio for colleges of further education over second level schools, but we must be clear that there is a radical difference between second level schools and colleges of further education, as well as the rest of that sector, which must be treated differently.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I must call the Deputy’s colleagues. He is taking their time.

Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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On PLC courses the students are not in classes of fixed size. There are not 25 students studying maths in one room, 25 more studying English and so on. They are engaging in a variety of different courses in areas such as theatre, child care, film-making, animation, health care and leisure management. These courses need more flexibility and more teacher specialisation. I hope that in future we will be able to ensure these colleges of further education have all the resources they need.

When one considers the scope and scale of innovation and reform undertaken by this Minister and his colleague, the Minister of State, who is present here, one is in Donogh O’Malley territory. I am reassured by Deputy Quinn’s commitment to restore to full the resources-----

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I am giving the Deputy the guidelines as a matter of courtesy. There is half an hour in the slot and the Deputies may divide the time however they wish. I call Deputy Griffin.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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I concur with the previous speakers and I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. I also welcome the Fianna Fáil Deputies back to the Chamber. There was a big void on the far side of the House for a considerable time this morning.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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We have monitors in our offices.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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I thought we had returned to pre-1926 days when the party refused to take its seats in the Dáil.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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When will Deputy Griffin turn up again at public meetings? He used to organise them.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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It is good to see them back, especially because this is a Fianna Fáil motion. It is quite important that they be here for the debate.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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When is Fine Gael going to pay for PLC courses again?

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Griffin has only a short time to speak.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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The Deputies are welcome back. They can check the Official Report on the Internet in case they missed anything.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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The monitors were on in our offices.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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It is highly regrettable that any cuts have to be made in the education sector, but the party opposite which tabled this motion left us in such a deplorable state that cuts unfortunately have to be made. We need to prioritise and make sure those cuts do not have as great a negative impact as they perhaps could. In the 2008-2010 era, when the nature of the situation finally dawned on Fianna Fáil and the Independents who supported them, including one Independent from my constituency, we saw savage cuts in the education sector.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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What about the Progressive Democrats?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister of State was a PD. He was the party leader.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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Was not the fellow beside Deputy Griffin a PD once?

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Probably. He has been everywhere else.

Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)
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In this budget at least we have protected front-line services at primary and secondary level. That is important. The primary sector is the most important area in our education system. It covers the formative years that we absolutely need to protect. I feel very strongly about this. It is an area in which we need to invest further in the future, and I hope we will see that happen. Once this country keeps the type of solid government it now has, compared with the ridiculous Government that was there for 14 years exercising the politics of lunacy, there will be some chance for our future generations.

In considering the overall education sector, we need to examine the cost of service provision at the higher education level where there is scope for major savings. We need to study the cost of service provision. We need to grasp the opportunity in the discussions on the second Croke Park agreement to achieve major savings across the sector and protect the vital front-line services that will pay dividends for every community in our country and society.

Eamonn Maloney (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I always welcome any Private Members' motion that highlights discrimination in education. I wish to be positive towards those who tabled the motion. It is a good one because there is no sector in Irish society in which we witness more discrimination than education. I have no objections in principle to such a motion, but it would be dishonest to pretend that the Minister could somehow ring-fence everything in education at a time when we are borrowing €41 million per day from our nearest neighbours. It would be impossible. I doubt that has ever happened in a democracy at any time in the past. No Department was going to escape, given our financial circumstances.

If the Members opposite are concerned about discrimination in education, there are areas of far greater discrimination than the one they have highlighted, which is that of PLC courses.

I point out to Members opposite and to the Sinn Féin group, which presented an amendment to their motion, that there are many greater examples of discrimination. The thread of thinking is the same. The greatest discrimination that takes place in this jurisdiction in terms of tilting educational opportunities against those who are less well-off, or who are the children of those less well-off, is the fact that for 40 years the party opposite - and Sinn Féin also because not one of its members mentioned this fact during the debate on the education budget - has supported 55 private schools getting €103 million as a subsidy from the taxpayers of this State. Such schools do not get this money in Northern Ireland or in any part of Scotland, England or Wales. If those Members are concerned about discrimination in education they should not stay up all night on the basis of the motion they proposed. We ought to be ashamed of ourselves for that €103 million. The current Minister for Education, along with his Department, is the first Minister in the history of the State to have reduced this subsidy in any way. The reduction for this year was €6 million although I would have preferred if it had been €60 million. My position about the 55 private fee-paying schools is well known; I do not believe they should get a euro. However, in fairness, the Minister and his Department are the first to tackle this problem.

I refer again to another area of discrimination in education, the literacy issue. A speaker referred to Fianna Fáil's 14 year period in office. At present 17% of children at second level have difficulties in reading and writing. I know where the €103 million that goes to 55 private schools should be going. However, the problem of literacy continued to grow while Fianna Fáil was in office because it was not a priority. The party members can check out this Minister and his Department for themselves. For the first time there is a programme to deal with literacy issues, which is almost exclusively dedicated to children of working-class parents. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, has for the first time tackled the issue in the most substantial way possible. I wish to acknowledge that for the record.

Perhaps we could all work together to have fairness in education and not have an educational system which is exclusively for the great and the good, the privileged of society. The way to have fairness in education is to tilt it in favour of those who have literacy problems.

Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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Fáiltím roimh an deis labhairt ar an t-ábhar seo. The opportunity to speak on education and related issues is always welcome because the value of education can never be overstated. Increasingly, with the passage of time, we see the many highs and lows in other different sectors and areas of society and the economy and we realise the staying power of education and the productive benefit it has for all who are fortunate enough to avail of it. Therefore, any debate on this subject is important. There are many students in the House today listening to the debate so it is important to go to basics and not to get too tied up in the political angle. If we stand back and look at our economy most of us will agree with the diagnosis. The single greatest threat to the next generation, to its future and well-being, is unemployment. Everybody in this House will recognise and accept that. Where we differ is in the prescription and how to deal with it.

This motion argues that the pupil-teacher ratio should have been maintained in post leaving certificate courses. The reality is that €90 million was the agreed figure for this. Every Member is the House will understand and appreciate that this figure had to be reduced in the education budget because we are living in very different times. I do not agree with borrowing more and more money which ultimately will go onto the shoulders of the next generation - the people in the Gallery, my children at home and the children of the next generation will have to pay for it. To continue with the status quo is not an option for us. Nobody likes change and politicians live by that weakness in society, hopping on horseback whenever the opportunity arises. People do not like change, they will object and politicians are the cheerleaders in this regard, depending on whether they have the responsibility of governance or the luxury of opposition. We are all guilty of the same trait; that is a fact. I believe that in trying to save €90 million, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, and the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, made the right decision. This is the lesser of the evils. Politics is about options and tough, difficult choices but, most important, it is about the right choices. As a former educationalist and as a parent of young children going to school, I consider this change far preferable than to have the pupil-teacher ratio affected or levelled off in primary or secondary schools. A parallel cannot be drawn between the PLC courses, which involve motivated adult learners, and secondary schools.

In almost every education debate in which I have spoken in this House, I welcomed above and beyond all else that the Minister and his Minister of State were not forced or, more important, did not choose, to cut resources to special needs pupils and those with learning difficulties and challenges. For me, that is always a top priority and must be protected - everything else is on the table. I cannot countenance the other situation, having seen in my career in the education system the way these resources have evolved and the impact they have had on the needs of children with special learning challenges. I am delighted to welcome another budget which has protected the number of resource teachers and SNAs in the system.

I refer again to change, which is necessary. We must look at the solutions and prescriptions we are doling out. I am involved in a jobs initiative in west Cork along with some of the leading employers in the west Cork region. We meet once a month with a view to trying to diagnose a solution for the problem of unemployment and there is no doubt that education plays a key role here. I spent the morning in committee where the Bill on education and training boards is on Committee Stage. Many initiatives, such as SOLAS and ETBs and other new developments, are being taken by the Department of Education and Skills and I welcome every one of them. We must be more creative in how we upskill. The big challenge for us is to identify the shortage of skills. One can consider an initiative such as CoderDojo which is strongly supported by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon. I look forward to joining the Clonakilty group on Friday with my children. That initiative cost absolutely nothing but it recognised a flaw in our current education system and has gone about addressing it on a completely cost-neutral basis. This is the kind of thinking in which we must engage as legislators. It is just one initiative albeit an extremely powerful one. We are wasting time talking in this Private Members' debate which, let us be honest, is only showboating. It would have been far superior if we had a more productive, progressive and constructive conversation about the real challenges in addressing the unemployment crisis in this country.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the chance to contribute on this motion proposed by Fianna Fáil in Private Members' time although I do not know what to make of it. Sometimes I read these motions and get angry at them or laugh at them. However, I listened to the debate last night in which speakers were criticising the numbers in PLC courses, complaining that the pupil-teacher ratio had changed from 17:1 to 19:1. That was a bit sad. We are talking about adults who want to attend a course and are willing to sit there, to learn and listen. This is not primary school. When Deputy Dara Calleary and I were in primary school there were probably more than 40 in our class. These are adults. Surely to God it is okay to have 19 adults learning in a room. If one goes to any lecture hall or theatre there may be hundreds present to listen to a lecture. Let us cop ourselves on. We are living in different times. We do not have the money we used to have and we know where the blame for that lies - with the party opposite. We do not have the money any longer and must make changes. There have to be cuts. It is truly ridiculous to criticise an area of this kind where the pupil-teacher ratio has been slightly moved, especially given that the number of places has stayed the same and has not been reduced. During Fianna Fáil's time there was a budget cut in 2009 to grants for physics and chemistry. That is what the party decided to cut in the current climate. It also decided to cut funding for the centre for talented youth, which was very clever. Grants for home economics were abolished. There were 200 fewer primary teachers and 200 fewer secondary teachers.

They were cuts that hurt people. There was a reduction of 500 places in the back-to-education initiative. They were silly cuts if they hit the wrong areas. Let us get real. Some of these cuts were mentioned last night and today. At a time when we do not have the amount of money we had, we need to make sensible, clever changes. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, the Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, and their team are a reforming team. I was glad to chair the committee, with some of my colleagues, that covered education in the first year of the new Government, which saw a reforming Minister and his team come forward with new ideas to try to change the system for two reasons: because we had less money, thanks to the financial mess and the mismanagement of the previous 14 years under a previous Government - namely, Fianna Fáil and its friends - and also because the system needed reform.

FÁS was allowed to become almost an uncontrollable monster and nobody knew what was going on there. That is unfair to the good staff who wanted to do well in FÁS but could not because the system would not allow them. It was Bertie Ahern's pet project and it became an utter disaster. Apart from that, the system across the board at all levels of education must be reformed. The Minister is a long way down that road with the abolition of the FÁS brand, the emergence of SOLAS later in the year and the formation of the education and training boards. I accept that education and training boards were being discussed by the previous Government, but nothing was done. We would like the reforms to happen within a shorter timeframe, but they are on the way and will be in place before the end of the year. These reforms will benefit all those who need to retain and improve their skills.

We have also had reform in the whole approach to primary and second level schools, and common sense has been introduced. In regard to my home town of Navan, I avail of the opportunity to spell out the reform that has been undertaken by the Government. The school building project announced last year by the Minister for Education and Skills highlighted the firm commitment by the Government to reform the way it invested in primary and secondary school infrastructure on the basis of needs. This is a town that had trebled in population and had waited ten years for announcements in respect of new schools. This was the first school project built, last year, that utilised information from the Department of Social Protection to prioritise where new schools would be built. By cross-checking child benefit payment patterns within a geographical spread, the Department of Education and Skills was able to decide where the schools were most needed for the years ahead. This is a common-sense approach that led to the town of Navan finally getting its fair share of additional school places to meet the growing needs of the pupil population in a town that grew during the boom years. It had been neglected for many years by old systems that did not recognise the population explosion. Navan is getting a second level school and a brand new national school, while two or three more national schools are being assigned to permanent accommodation to fit their needs. Rightly so. That is not happening because of parochialism or somebody banging the table but because it was right. That is what the Ministers are trying to do in all areas of education and especially in the reform of the systems of further education and training - to bring forward common-sense methods that will respond to the current climate.

Deputy Dara Calleary is a member of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills. Representatives of businesses and enterprises who appear before the committee on a weekly basis say they cannot get the skills they need, despite the massive unemployment. New programmes such as the ICT strategy will close that gap. We also need to devise other strategies in this regard. I have no doubt that the new initiatives with SOLAS and the education and training boards will help us adapt our facilities and resources to match the needs of employers and the needs of future employees. We must also adapt the training provided to those who want to become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses. The same Deputy was with us on the day we heard from Discovery Zone. Sadly, we still have not managed to fit it into a certain area to find funding for it, but we must adapt our systems to allow us to fund programmes such as Discovery Zone, along with others that deal with people who have business ideas. Such people are given courses and their skills are improved to enable them open their own businesses. I am glad we have reforming Ministers. It is a bit cheeky of Fianna Fáil to whinge and cry over certain areas after its record of not reforming a system that needed to be reformed. There are many Departments that need to reform and change to take account of what is going on. It is happening, and slowly but surely we are getting there.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Dara Calleary, who is sharing time with Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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I had not wanted to be a teacher up to five minutes ago because, with respect to my colleague, the chairman of the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, there is a lack of understanding of the actual impact of what will happen. I thank Deputy Charlie McConalogue for giving us the opportunity to discuss the issue. This is not about putting 19 people into a classroom where there were previously 17; this is about 500 jobs that will be gone because of the change. It is about the cancellation of courses providing the skills to which the Deputy referred, of which there is a shortage.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Not the ones that are needed.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Many of them will have to be cancelled-----

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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They will not.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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-----because of the way the courses are designed, as some of the 500 people whose jobs will be lost will not be in a position to provide the modules for courses that are currently necessary. This is the big danger. We have heard much, particularly from the Labour Party, about discrimination. This is discrimination. This time last year we were talking about the attack by the Labour Party on DEIS schools which it had to reverse and, now it is going after the PLC and further education sector, many of which are located in the same areas. It is a sector that I often wish, when I see the courses on offer, was available in my time. The courses it offers throughout the country are different and are responsive. It is a sector that is unbelievably flexible. In the education sector, which everybody admits is usually completely inflexible, the PLC sector has been able to get approval and provide courses in the shortest timeframe in response to the demands of employers. That is the reason it provides courses in information technology such as cloud computing and ethical hacking. I too acknowledge the work done by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, in CoderDojo, but there is no sense in training and inspiring a whole generation of teenagers about IT and their role in it if we cut off their access. If they do not wish to attend third level institutions or universities there are PLC courses that are perfect for them, but they are being withdrawn. This is not about putting two extra bodies in the classroom but about the undermining of an entire sector which has shown itself to be innovative and responsive and, in many of its courses, quite exciting.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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And it is in a mess.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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We have had the usual choir from the Government backbenches about 14 years of nothing happening, but during the time when Deputy Micheál Martin was Minister for Education and Skills this sector was given huge resources and huge independence, which allowed it to be as flexible as it has been.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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Of course.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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That is why it was so responsive. Today the Government will meet at 2.30 p.m. for a special meeting on the jobs action plan. The only thing that will come out of that meeting is headlines and it will be forgotten about again. I said already this morning that I tabled a parliamentary question to each Minister on what their Departments did in 2012 on the jobs action plan. I have received detailed responses and we are going through them to see what is real. The best response I got was from the Minister for Finance, the man who writes the cheques - perhaps the real Taoiseach. He said it was not a matter for him but a matter for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation. The Minister for Finance has washed his hands of the jobs initiative. It appears that in the changes to the PLC courses we have a Government that says it responds to the skills shortage. The Joint Committee on Education and Skills, chaired by Deputy Damien English, has drawn up a fantastic document on skills shortages, on which I compliment Senator Deirdre Clune. The Minister has undermined the PLC sector, which has been so responsive and flexible. Taking 500 jobs out of the sector will not do anything to address the skills shortage.

Much has been said about FÁS and SOLAS. The work in respect of SOLAS was under way in the Department of Education and Skills prior to the arrival of the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. It was under way when the former Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills, Mary Coughlan, was in office. I cannot recall whether it was the Deputy English or Deputy Eamonn Maloney who said the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, would be the new Donogh O'Malley. I am afraid not.

Michael Conaghan (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Wait and see.

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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Donogh O'Malley would not have attacked DEIS schools and he would not have attacked those seeking to improve their skills. Let us look at the people who use PLC courses. They are people who are taking a second chance - people who may have been out of employment for some time and have decided to follow all the advice, to improve their skills and gain new ones and see where the demand is. The Minister represents a constituency that is a model in terms of further education.

Ballyfermot Senior College is a model for the further education sector. Its work is amazing and replicated in Castlebar and Galway in the Minister of State's constituency. We are undermining the ability of the unemployed to access second chance education courses by imposing this cut. We are saying they should be given a second chance, but we are cutting them off at the legs when they attempt to take that opportunity.

I have listened to all the praise for the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Joan Burton - give me a break. If she was still in opposition and my party introduced this cut - something we would not have done - she would be heard from Malin Head to Mizen Head. She says she will provide extra places, but last year the number of extra places amounted to just over 5,000 at a time when 515,000 people were unemployed. The one sector in a position to respond will face cuts. Surely the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, could have co-ordinated a response with the Minister for Social Protection. They could have decided that this was the sector producing the goods and which was flexible. It does not take 20 years to approve and design a course, by which time it is irrelevant. Surely between the two Departments a solution could be found for the sector that would deliver. That no places will be cut is a falsehood because we all know that many colleges are over quota because they do not want to turn people away who want to avail of the opportunities provided by PLC courses. The skills and ability of local management are to be cut.

I refer to the variety of courses available which include cloud computing, ethical hacking - an interesting course, computer network infrastructure support, computer network management and smart technology application development. These are things which control our lives. The development of applications - app development - is an area in which money is to be made on a large scale. One does not need big IDA backup to set up an app development business. It does not require large factory space. People have ideas for application development. I would never be able to do it, but those with the ideas want to learn the skills, but we are taking that chance away from them. This week another traditional retail icon has gone to the wall. These courses are designed to upskill retail staff in order that they can provide a better service for the customer. That opportunity will be cut, which does not make sense.

I am not making a political point, but I note that the Government system operates in silos, so to speak. For example, a decision taken in the Department of Education and Skills will have consequences for the Department of Social Protection because more people will be driven towards social welfare schemes. We need to abolish the silo mentality. The Department of Education and Skills should have decided to work in partnership with the Department of Social Protection. The cost will be €90 million and opportunities will be lost. That €90 million will now be spent by the Department of Social Protection because people who had been willing to return to education will be forced to apply for jobseeker's allowance.

There is a chorus about 14 wasted years, but it seems to be a case of shooting the messenger. I agree with Deputy Jim Daly - education is opportunity. It is the key which every four year-old child is given when he or she starts school. We need to ensure every person is given that key and can use it to the best of his or her ability. However, some fall between the cracks for various reasons. PLC courses give such persons a second chance at a time when they may be in a better position to access education. It demonstrates to the business and industry sectors that the education system can be responsive, yet the cuts are to proceed. I presume from the tenor of the contributions of Labour Party Members that on this occasion, unlike last year, there is no cabal led by the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte to beat up the Minister for Education and Skills on this issue. We are not showboating on this side of the House; we do not have time to showboat, rather we are highlighting a very serious issue which will be slow burning because the cuts will be made in drips and drabs. They will not be reported in TheIrish Timesor the Irish Independentand Joe Duffy will not be talking about them. As a result of these cuts, right around the country potentially hundreds of people will have a future denied to them. They had decided to pursue a course and the PLC sector fitted their needs and abilities. Many of those who use the PLC sector may have had bad experiences in the education sector and the PLC sector was designed to facilitate them to return to upskill to gain employment, yet this sector has been targeted for the biggest cut.

I congratulate the Minister who did well in protecting his budget. However, he is no Donogh O'Malley and never will be. Donogh O'Malley would not have stood over the mess that is SUSI.

Deputy Eamonn Maloney referred to discrimination. The Minister specifically discriminated against rural schools last year when they were chosen as the target for a very specific cut in the pupil-teacher ratio to be made over three years. That is discrimination and he would have tried to get away with it had it not been for Labour Party backbenchers and Fianna Fáil. He attempted to completely undermine the DEIS system. I must check out his amazing initiative on literacy. During the period of 14 years to which Members opposite refer school completion rates rose to record levels because of the investment at primary and secondary level; capital investment was made in all aspects of the education system during that period.

This cut of €90 million will not be reversed, but we will continue to highlight it. The Government is digging in on the issue, but backbenchers had their Weetabix this morning, judging from the tenor of the contributions made. If there is an underspend in the Department at the end of the year, which is possible, this is the sector which needs to get the money. I ask the Minister to look after a sector which has provided so many niche opportunities. I ask him to ensure any unpent moneys will be allocated to this sector in order to alleviated the effects of the cuts to be made. I am disappointed Deputy Damien English portrayed the effect as being having two extra participants in a PLC course. He is a very genuine politician, but if that is the level of understanding on the Government side of the House of the effects of the cuts, we have a far bigger problem in understanding the importance of skills training.

Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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Tá áthas orm deis a bheith agam labhairt ar an ábhar seo. I am very pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to the debate.

It is necessary to have an overview of where the Government is making cuts. As has been pointed out by my colleagues, they can be made in three places. The first is in rural schools. We know that the rural schools system works. Maps showing areas of social disadvantage show many rural areas fit into this category. On the other hand, with regard to levels of educational attainment, rural areas score as high as urban areas. The Minister is, therefore, trying to break a system that has been working for generations. Both he and staff in the Department have an ideological hang-up when it comes to small rural communities. It is well known that the Minister believes we should all live in towns and cities. In his view, the traditional settlement pattern is wrong and outdated. According to him, we should conform to some continental model.

He then targeted the DEIS schools in band 1. Despite what any map shows, the reality is that when examining social and educational disadvantage, one should examine the areas in which the DEIS schools operate. We have witnessed the demise of the RAPID programme under the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Phil Hogan. We know that the very day children are born in RAPID areas, they are at a disadvantage. Instead of trying to minimise disadvantage systematically, as Fianna Fáil was trying to do, the current Minister tried last year to compound it.

The areas with the lowest level of access to third level education are disadvantaged urban areas. While there are people throughout the country who do not proceed to third level education, only 10% to 20% of students from RAPID areas reach third level. Therefore, those who most need access to PLC courses and further education, and who require the chance to do the leaving certificate, are those in the very areas of which the Labour Party would always claim to be the champion. Despite this, these are the areas targeted for the cut.

We hear a lot of easy talk around here that class sizes are being increased only by two. Those who are making these statements obviously have no experience of PLC or adult education. Owing to the wide variety of courses that must be offered, the reality is that class sizes will be small, by definition. This is because the courses are necessarily technical and specialised, unlike Irish, English and mathematics as taught in an ordinary school. The classes are small because the demand is low in certain places. Making a comparison with university, where there may be 300 students in a lecture theatre, is an absolute nonsense. Anybody who went to third level will know the lecture is part of what one is offered but that one also gets tutorials. There are some very small specialised classes in universities. If one calculated the total number of staff, including graduate staff, in any university and compared it with the number of students, one would find the pupil-teacher ratio is very good.

I am fascinated by how slow the Minister is to curb the excesses in universities. Let us be honest: universities still spend money in many cases in a way that other any organisation, including the Government, could only dream of. If adult education had to be subject to a cut, why was it not where it could be carried?

We must always recognise that those who have had advantages in life, be they associated with their background, family or good education, will always swim to the top. Those who need the most support are those who have experienced disadvantage or those who might not have had an education, for all sorts of reasons. There is a direct relationship between employment attainment and one's employability. Those with degrees, even degrees that are not directly relevant to the job being applied for, have a significant advantage over those who do not have a leaving certificate. Therefore, if we want to deal with the long-term, intractable unemployment problem, we must ensure educational attainment for those without a leaving certificate. Specialised education for those with a special skill that does not match the skills covered in the general curriculum will likely result in their being employed. If we do not achieve this, we will consign the cohort in question to a life of unemployment. That is absolutely terrible for them and not good for society.

The decisions regarding disadvantage may not seem serious on their own but if they are all stacked on top of one another, one suddenly realises there is considerable compounding of attention against very vulnerable groups, which the Government seems to be targeting all the time. We have pointed out time and again the manner in which the Minister for Social Protection seems very much set on targeting families and women. A plethora of Ministers seem to have as their great goal in government the demise of rural Ireland. It seems the urban disadvantaged are also very much in the Ministers' sights. For the life of me, I do not know what the urban disadvantaged have done to offend the Government.

Let us consider the compounding of three decisions. The Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government has decided to withdraw the co-ordinators from the RAPID programme. He has effectively wound down the programme in full and is not holding any meetings of the RAPID co-ordinating committee. We had been making significant progress in giving people a say within their communities, with the scientific focus on the urban communities facing the greatest disadvantage. The Minister for Social Protection said she would add to this step by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government and consequently she has put in her penny's worth of attack. She has withdrawn the allowance that enables people to buy the books required to attend courses and she has reduced the back-to-education allowance, which is focused very much on those on low incomes. The Minister for Education and Skills says he will top that by attacking further education and PLC courses.

People have argued that we should not get political about this. While the Government keeps pointing out that there is a fixed amount of money, which we all accept, it should note the real issue concerns what it should do with that money. The reality is that it has made its choices. The Opposition has a perfect right and obligation to pose alternatives to those choices if it disagrees with them and to ask the public to make up its mind on them.

The Government has two mantras. It blames everything on what my party was doing in government. When one reads Government scripts, be they from the Department of Education and Skills or the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, one realises it claims as its own the reforming decisions that the former Government was making. I was amazed to hear the current Government talk about SOLAS. On the first day of my term in office as Minister for Social Protection under former Taoiseach Brian Cowen, it was decided that the skills side of FÁS would be the responsibility of the then Department of Education and Science and that the labour activation and employment engagement sides would be the responsibility of the Department of Social Protection. That happened on 28 March 2010. By 1 January 2011, FÁS was already under the ambit of the two Departments. The current Government, which is so critical of everything we did, has tried to claim responsibility for this. Since we are talking about what we had in mind, let us remember that by placing activation under the remit of the Department of Social Protection, we were saying that everybody in receipt of a long-term unemployment payment would have the opportunity, on a continuous basis, either to engage in education or to participate on a training or work scheme to the benefit of the community instead of being paid to do nothing or being penalised for becoming active.

The Government has thrown out that big idea but if it wants to take on board another idea, and we would praise it for doing so, it should complete the work we had started in our time in government. It is utterly ridiculous to be paying the 200,000 who are long-term unemployed and telling them to do nothing rather than inviting them to make a contribution to society, as we know they would wish to do.

Deputy Maloney spoke about fee paying schools. The Minister for Education and Skills has a good knowledge of fee paying schools and he knows the complexity of the issue. Instead of pretending that these issues are all simple and one just needs to pull the €100 million, it is time for the Minister to be upfront and explain to the likes of Deputy Maloney the reasons this is not so simple. For the past month and more there have been nightly protests in the North which are to do with the perceptions of communities in regard to disadvantage. One of the things this State set out to do to the best of its ability, and which it did, was to try to ensure that religious minorities in this State were fairly treated. The Minister of State opposite and the Minister, Deputy Quinn, know that the difficulty with the issue in regard to the private schools relates to the fact that it would have a huge effect on the minority or the Protestant schools. One cannot discriminate between religions and if one is going to make a exception of Protestant private schools, one cannot refuse to allow the Catholic schools have the same dispensation.

It is time we stopped codding ourselves that there was some wrong or selfish interest or that we had a particular interest in private schools. I come from the same neck of the woods as the Minister of State. I went to a non-fee paying school and he went to a fee paying school. That was his right and the right of his parents and the other choice was the right of my parents. I come from a background where the choice was made to select the non-fee paying school but I do not pretend it is a simple issue to withdraw the grants. It is important that the Minister of State explains to his Labour Party colleagues that this is a highly complex issue and that the last thing we should do in this State is to be seen for some political cheapshot to take steps that would discriminate unfairly against the minority faith communities here and that would give ammunition to those who would want to say that we have not treated all of the citizens of this State equally.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies from all sides of the House for their contributions on this issue last night and today. I welcome the opportunity to address the House on what I consider to be a very important issue. It is entirely appropriate that we highlight the importance of our further education system and its aligned training sector both as part of our education system, which promotes lifelong learning, and as part of our country's future in terms of providing reskilling and upskilling opportunities for our citizens and in particular the very large number of people who are unemployed.

My colleague, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, made a point last night that deserves repeating, namely, that for far too long the further education sector has been something of a Cinderella in our education sector. Our debate in this House is at long last a welcome indication that we are making progress in bringing that sector forward and giving it a unique identity all of its own. The Government is leading on that both through maintaining and consolidating investment in further education and training to ensure that it has a sustainable future. It has introduced an ambitious programme of reforms to ensure that it can adequately meet the challenges of the 21st century. Chief among those reforms is the establishment of Solas, the new further education and training authority. We are abolishing FÁS and transferring its training provision to our new network of education and training boards,ETBs. Solas will have a role in a distinct and integrated further education and training sector not unlike the role played by the HEA for higher education.

For many Deputies the debate on the sector has focused on the budget decision to raise the pupil-teacher ratio in post-leaving certificate courses from 17:1 to 19:1. While it would have been preferable to avoid such a decision the Government saw that it was necessary at this point in time to protect front-line services to our children to ensure they can get the very best possible start in life. It was hard to justify a more favourable pupil-teacher ratio in the post-leaving certificate, PLC, sector which is geared mainly to very motivated adults rather than teenagers. I would highlight the fact that across the further and higher education training sectors the Government will provide more than 430,000 part-time and full-time places, including 32,688 approved PLC places, all of which are open to young people and adults including the unemployed.

Alongside the substantial reforms we are making across the education sector, the Department of Social Protection is fundamentally reorganising the public employment service with the creation of Intreo alongside a newly integrated further education and training sector as well as innovative schemes in higher education such as Springboard. I am confident we can continue to meet the needs of unemployed people who want to upskill or reskill to re-enter the labour market.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge publicly the very hard work that has been done by staff and management in VECs who are responsible for the vast majority of further education delivery. I also acknowledge the hard work of FÁS staff. It is without prejudice to the efforts of those staff that we are abolishing FÁS and transferring its training provision to the net network of ETBs.

Earlier Deputy Calleary correctly described the PLC and VEC sector as being very innovative and responsive. I have every confidence in the management and staff of that sector to be equally innovative and responsive in responding to the challenge, and I acknowledge it is a challenge, of increasing the pupil-teacher ratio from 17:1 to 19:1 to ensure that the provision in the PLC sector responds effectively to the demands of the labour market and empowers those who accessing those courses to re-enter the labour market in a very short space of time. In the coming period it would be vital for us all, including staff and management in FÁS and the VECs, to work in partnership. We are faced with an array of challenges and I am confident that based on our progress so far we will deal successfully with them.

Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I will be brief and to the point on this issue because the points that have been made bear no relevance to what is happening on the ground. If one had left this country and was away for two years and had read the press releases about the cuts in education, one would have assumed that the Minister responsible for the Department was somewhere right of Genghis Khan because one would not believe that it could be a Labour Minister. There has been a sustained attack on the disadvantaged by the Minister and the Department during the past two years. This time last year people were out on the streets throughout this country campaigning to get the pupil-teacher ratio restored to DEIS schools, schools which cater for those who are disadvantaged and which are on the front line of dealing with the most vulnerable people in our communities. What did the Government do? It cut places and supports to primary schools that are dealing with the most severe disadvantage in this State.

There is now an sustained attack on the further education and adult education sector at the other end of the scale. It is not credible for the Minister of State or the senior Minister to say that "we have increased the pupil-teacher ratio by two". The Minister of State knows full well that the profile of most people in further education and going back to education is that they are already educationally disadvantaged. To say that because the Government increased the pupil-teacher ratio in private fee paying schools, it can justify it on the other side for cheap political point-scoring is the most disingenuous thing I have heard in this House in a long time. It is not acceptable for people to say that because we cut the pupil-teacher ratio in the private schools and colleges we are entitled to rip supports away from people who are already educationally disadvantaged. These people who are in the most difficult circumstances now that there is 14.6% unemployment want an opportunity to go back to education, and they need and deserve that, to gain opportunities for themselves at a time they are most vulnerable now that they are unemployed.

For the Government to suggest this will have no impact is wrong. It will have a devastating impact on further and adult education courses. The Minister of State should not believe the nonsensical spin being put on it by the Department that the cuts will have no impact on courses in the further and adult education sector. We need honesty from the Department to restore budgets to ensure those from an educationally disadvantaged background will be given a second chance. For most of the people in question, the system has already failed them and the Government is now deliberately targeting them with the result that they will never have a chance or an opportunity.

The Minister of State has said the further and adult education sector is the Cinderella of the education sector. If it is, not only is the Government taking the glass slipper off her, but it is also taking the clothes off her. This attack is an awful indictment of the Government and the Labour Party in particular. I have looked at the promises made prior to the general election and in the programme for Government. I cannot find in either the various manifestos or the programme for Government a statement that the Government would make cuts in the further and adult education sector. The Government is going against the very thing it said it would not do. It is, in effect, undermining the capacity of the State to make amends to people who fell through the cracks at primary and secondary education level. It must acknowledge that this is a grave error. If it speaks about social justice, equality, parity of esteem and giving people a second chance, these cuts are anything but.

I am disgusted by the PR spin in the Department that disadvantage is something that can be attacked on a continual basis. It is shameful to take funding from DEIS schools and further and adult education programmes when another part of the education sector is short a few million euro. The Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, is a member of the Labour Party, a party that always championed the disadvantaged when it was on this side of the House. Now that the shoe is on the other foot the Minister has singularly failed. He has failed because he does not understand what disadvantage entails or the efforts people make to claw themselves back on to the opportunity ladder. The further and adult education sector is an integral part of that effort.

Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad to have the opportunity to make a contribution to the debate on this important motion. I congratulate my colleague, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, on his work in highlighting the attack the Government has made on an education sector that has proved to be very successful in the past decade and needs additional support because of its success with the increasing numbers attending further education colleges. I am familiar with the sector because I was the first chairman of the board of management of Cavan Institute. In the relatively small town of Cavan the institute has 1,300 day pupils and 500 night pupils enrolled. It will face a reduction of at least eight teachers if the cuts are introduced.

The Teachers Union of Ireland has issued clear statements on the regressive steps taken in the budget that will affect this sector. Any of us who has attended graduation ceremonies at a further education institute will have seen the pride of the students, with their families, having attained a further education qualification. One of the greatest success stories in the past decade about which we seldom hear is the significant increase in participation in higher level education. By 2009, Ireland had achieved the highest participation rate in tertiary education in the European Union. This is a statistic about which current Government members never speak. One of the important ingredients was the progression of students through the further education sector. I have seen people from homes where there was no interest in education get a chance to attend Cavan Institute to pursue a FETAC or other approved course. Many of them went on to attend an institute of technology or a university to achieve a third level qualification. Not only did many of them attain a primary degree but they also went on conduct postgraduate research.

It is absolutely reprehensible that the Government has attacked this sector. The Minister of State, Deputy Ciarán Cannon, has claimed this is the first time the further education sector has been given its own identity. It is right that it is be given its own identity but one could not do so if it were not for its success and high participation rates. While we welcome the new proposals for the new structures of the further education sector, the amalgamation of vocational education committees and the establishment of SOLAS, Seirbhísí Oideachais Leanunaigh agus Scileanna, this work was begun before March 2011 when the Government took office. I hope the new structures will be more successful than those put in place by the Government to administer the higher education grants system. I also hope the necessary preparatory work is done to ensure the new systems will work and that we will not have the dreadful failures experienced in the case of SUSI, Student Universal Support Ireland. It is deplorable that further education and Youthreach programmes are under attack. All Members know the importance of these programmes to young people who have not taken a traditional route in the education system to have a second chance to obtain educational qualifications.

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I have had a lifelong involvement and interest in further education and have served on the boards of management of a variety of colleges of further education in my native city of Cork. I was also the education Minister who introduced the first student grants system for students at colleges of further education and initiated the first major capital investment programme in the colleges. The results have had a significant impact on learners. One of the great lessons of the past 14 years is that we did succeed in transforming the education system to create pathways for people, irrespective of background, to be given a second chance.

The Government’s problem is that it is seeking underhand and sneaky ways to implement cuts. It is picking out sectors so as to avoid adopting a more generic approach to the system and hoping it will get away with it. Hence, we see a two point increase in the pupil-teacher ratio for colleges of further education. This is unprecedented in its scale and I have never before witnessed such an increase in one year. The impact on colleges of further education will be dramatic. One cannot apply the pupil-teacher model for primary and secondary schools to colleges of further education. It is not just about increasing class size but also removing specialist teachers in a variety of courses.

The sector is synonymous with innovation and diversity, with courses ranging from cloud computing to animal husbandry, music management to dance, as well as animation so celebrated in Hollywood with the success of Ballyfermot Senior College. All of these courses require specialist involvement and recruiting people for a period of six hours to teach a particular module. Those teachers with security of tenure will not lose their jobs. In essence, however, the Government is pulling the temporary specialists providing short-term courses out of the system.

By doing this, the Minister is reducing and eliminating courses. In many of these colleges if there were 50 places on two given courses the number will be reduced to 22 because of this decision. The Minister is removing choice and opportunity for people who need it.

Another key strength of the sector has been its connectivity with the marketplace, industry and the place of work.

It is ironic. We realise that the situation is difficult but the troika has pointed out time and again that individual spending and tax decisions remain at the discretion of the Government. Therefore, the Government has choices and that is important to remember. The Government has issued statements to the effect that it has reviewed every area of spending and that it has developed a strategically visionary approach to spending. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, was at it again this morning saying the same thing. We know that the reality is different from the rhetoric. There was a jobs budget. What did the Government state at the launch of the jobs budget more than one and a half years ago? It stated that further education and training were the core of its plan to revive the economy. Last year the Taoiseach made a presentation to European leaders recommending that they follow his approach to further education and training. Then, when it came to the budget, the Government cuts the legs from under one of the most important sectors in further education and training which has provided thousands of places throughout the years and thousands of opportunities and placements.

In the European Parliament yesterday the Taoiseach said that the fight against youth unemployment was his absolute priority. For people watching, including students in these colleges, this is why politics is like something in a foreign land. They read these statements but they must live with the reality they are experiencing, which is that there will not be places for them next September in some of these courses, because they will be eliminated. The decision the Government has taken on colleges of further education makes a mockery of the language the Taoiseach used in the European Parliament yesterday.

Independent international evaluations have been carried out and have repeatedly shown that this sector delivers for individuals, society and our economy. I was pleased when I read a report recently outlining a 90% completion rate at second level because of the policies we had introduced since 1998, including the school completion programme and provisions in other programmes. These programmes drive social mobility. The one chance we have to come out of this crisis is to protect education and ensure that it can continue to deliver progression and social mobility in the country at the level of the individual learner, collectively and for society as well. That is our way out of the crisis.

It is extraordinary for the Government to have taken this decision. Let us consider the decision in the context of the jobs initiative, the alleged commitment to job creation and the chronic unemployment situation. There is a special Cabinet meeting today at which Ministers will be asked to bring forward proposals on unemployment. It makes no sense. What will the Minister for Education and Skills bring forward today? What will he say to the Cabinet? Will he say that the Department is cutting several thousand places from colleges of further education because he believes the sector has no relationship to jobs? It is a joke. There is no coherence or strategy whatsoever.

What is more difficult to comprehend is not only that the Government is cutting the courses and places but it is cutting the financial incentives that we have had in place for more than a generation to encourage people back into education, including the back-to-education allowance, the vocational training opportunities scheme, VTOS, and a range of measures that have helped people and provided a financial underpinning for them to get back into education. The Government has cut these at the same time that it has cut places in colleges of further education. Up to 500 teachers will go as a result. Teachers have been impacted, colleges will be impacted as will their capacity to be innovative and to provide diversity of courses, but above all this decision will impact on the learner, the person who seeks to get on in life, who may have had challenges but who may wish to go back to education for a second chance, or who may not have attained the points to get into an institute of technology or a university this time around but who has a pathway through the colleges of further education to get there at some stage. We have cut off the opportunity for these learners. Shame on the Government for targeting in a selective way this sector of education to deliver savings to the Minister which he could have secured elsewhere, especially in terms of a universal charge increase as recommended by other parties in the House including the Labour Party, although it did not have the bottle to follow it through.