Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

What happened to the people in Cork South Central, to the people of Ballygarvan and the Star of the Sea school in Passage who were waiting for a new school? We have heard the Minister, Deputy Micheál Martin, trotting out promise after promise and the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, now doing the same. The former Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Mary Hanafin, did not care because she was not from Cork. What message are we giving the young people in our satellite towns and in Ballygarvan and Passage? We are telling them we do not care about them, that we do not give a damn. The message is that they can be educated in a prefab or in a rat-infested school or in an overcrowded classroom. Senator Ross is correct. Morale in education is at an all time low, but the Government and the Members opposite talk about changing economic times and cutbacks. The Members opposite forget that cutbacks affect people and the lives of people and the fact that the quality of education is dependent upon a built environment, a suitable learning environment along with suitable personnel.

This Government's policy is not adding up. It can be dressed up by the Members opposite but these are the facts. The OECD report states that Ireland's expenditure on education is the third lowest in Europe, it has the second largest primary school classes in Europe and there are four more pupils in Irish classes than in any other EU country. The commitment of this Government to education is negligible.