Frances Fitzgerald (Fine Gael)

The Deputy Leader's announcement was very brief, which raises the question as to why so little legislation is coming through from the Government to this House. One must ask what is happening. We know what is happening on the financial side, namely, that the EU is taking on the Government over the enormous rise in borrowing and criticising its entire approach and does not believe the figures that have been supplied to it. The question must be put to the Deputy Leader as to why there is a dearth of legislation coming to the Seanad.

I propose an amendment to the Order of Business to allow for a debate on education today. There are many outstanding issues on which we need information. It would be good to have a debate on this subject, about which everyone is concerned. Senator Dan Boyle may remember a video, produced by the Green Party, which was broadcast into every home in the country last year. One of the children who featured in that video said:

I can't vote but if I could vote there would be loads of things I would be asking the Government to do. I'd like there to be less kids in my class so the teacher could pay me more attention.

In that context, it must be very embarrassing for the Green Party that it agreed to the cutbacks in education in the budget.

Teachers in Lucan have asked a number of questions of me, which I will put to the Deputy Leader. This week I spoke to the principal of a school which has a number of foreign national students on its roll book. Currently there are five language support teachers in the school, but this is due to drop to only two when the new cutbacks take effect. The principal has had no direction on this matter and has not yet heard from the Department. He wishes to know if special consideration will be given to schools which have a certain number of students in need of language support and if they will be exempt from the teaching post reductions announced in the budget.

Another principal in the Lucan area told me that this year he has five junior infant classes to cope with demand from local families. Next year there will again be demand for the provision of five such classes, in a rapidly growing area. However, because of the cutbacks, he will only have the teaching resources to provide four junior infant classes. Will the Government take into account areas with a growing population, such as Lucan, or will it apply the cutbacks indiscriminately across the board?

School principals have told me that it is impossible for them to plan, given what they have been told to date and it is extremely destabilising for schools and school management. Despite everything that has been said, schools will have less funding from the Government next year than this year, making the situation highly pressurised.

There is a sense at present of death by a thousand cutbacks. We have heard the Minister refer to cutbacks but where is the overall plan from the Government? I ask the Deputy Leader to clarify whether the Government intends to introduce a supplementary budget, given the response from the EU on the scale of the problem here and the figures it believes are accurate, as opposed to those supplied by the Government.

Can Senator Dan Boyle explain how the Green Party can stand by what is happening to the Human Rights Commission, the Combat Poverty Agency and the Equality Authority?