Brendan Ryan (Labour)

It is unfair that children are disadvantaged in this manner in this day and age. The effect of this is that a school in a well-off area which can afford to raise up to €90,000 in a year can be almost the desirable digital school with the best of everything, while a school in a disadvantaged area, even allowing for extra funding to pay for extra reading tuition and subsidised school tours, simply does not have this option.

Our Constitution guarantees the right to an education. That right should not be contingent on the wealth of one's parents. Underfunding of schools for basic equipment has become such a fact of life that retail business has moved into the vacuum. The private sector has spotted a lucrative niche in the form of voucher schemes for computers and PE gear. We have computers provided by one supermarket chain and footballs by another. It is disturbing that children are being used as marketing agents by supermarkets which exploit the lack of equipment in schools to get parents to spend a considerable amount of money in their outlets. These schemes, which depend on high levels of private consumption, privilege a certain type of customer and, in turn, a certain type of school. What other public service requires its manager to pack bags in the local supermarket or to organise cake sales to keep the lights on? Instead of being teachers, human resources managers, innovators and leaders our schools need and deserve, principals are semi-permanent fund-raisers.

It is difficult to believe education is a real priority for this Government. The most vulnerable children have the right to be cared for and respected in the education system. Our economy, as many Ministers in Government are saying, needs graduates, but they do not materialise at 18 or 21. Primary education is the cornerstone of the knowledge economy.