Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael)

Her colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, is today presiding over the instilling of fear and angst in school managers, principals, teachers and parents who are under siege.

This debate takes place against the backdrop of the most serious economic recession this country has faced and we face many social challenges, such as rising unemployment and the credit crunch. We must give hope to young people. We must give them ambition and we can do that through education. Sadly, hope is being eliminated by bureaucratic decisions taken by politicians at the Cabinet table.

The task facing us is not to divide educationalists and put one sector against the other, which is happening at the moment. There is now competition for different places and moneys. The great majority of our teachers are wonderful people who give of their time freely for coaching and other duties outside the classroom in core curricular and non-curricular activities such as musicals, preparing debating teams and science competitions. I hope we do not take away that volunteerism from teachers which is being done in many ways.

I welcome the Minister of State back to the House and thank him for coming back because I was concerned he would give us only 28 minutes. I am glad he is back. It is important, as the Minister referred to in his speech, that we use education as the engine to reboot the economy. On the website of the Department of Education and Science it is stated that chief among the Minister's priorities is the promotion of inclusion. Senator Ross and I have referred on Adjournment debates to minority religions and we certainly need to look at that issue again.

If we are serious about education, I want to ask the Minister of State why 32 cutbacks were announced in the budget. These included, despite what he says, a real reduction in the schools building programme, a reduction in the number of teachers and language support teachers, a reduction in staffing levels for previously non-DEIS schools and an increase in the student registration fee.

I agree with Senator Keaveney. Age nought to six is the most pivotal part of a child's development. I say that as a teacher because by the time pupils enter second level it is too late or they are playing catch up all the time. It is important we prioritise those aged nought to six.

We on this side of the House share the Minister of State's view on maths and science. We need to see meaningful change because, according to recent reports, there is a dearth of maths and science graduates and that situation needs to be reversed. In 2000, 2,145 bachelor degrees in computing were awarded. It is projected that in 2010 the number will be 1,236. In 2002, 873 bachelor degrees in electrical engineering were awarded, while 389 are projected for 2010. As Deputy Brian Hayes said in late December, how can our economy recover and prosper when in an eight-year period there will be a 45% drop in the numbers of computing graduates and a 55% drop in electrical engineering graduates? Perhaps the Minister will address that question in his reply. In addition, we need to prioritise the awarding of postgraduate degrees.

I visit schools every week and find that morale in staffrooms across the country has never been lower; it is at rock bottom. Teaching staff are angry and worried about where it will stop.

I welcome the Minister's announcement on funding for the Star of the Sea primary school in Passage West. He did not invite all of us, but instead picked a coterie of people to attend. I pay tribute to those who led that campaign. They shamed the Government into delivering after so many years of promising to deliver. I pay tribute to the Minister for delivering, but it is a pity he is not still in Cork central because then Ballygarvin national school, St. Angela's and a few more would get the funding they deserve. Maybe the Minister can prioritise them with some of the schools in Cork north west before the year is out.

For many years I taught the leaving certificate applied course, which is one of the best and most innovative programmes ever introduced at second level. It kept people in school who might otherwise not have remained there. The cut in that budget is wrong; it should be accentuated rather than reduced. Senator Mullen spoke about measuring qualities and intelligence. The leaving certificate applied was experiential education at its best. It gave young people, who up to then had no sense of achievement in school, an opportunity to blossom and flourish. They left school with a holistic education, an award and a degree of confidence they would not have achieved through struggling with the leaving certificate exam. Life is not just about the leaving certificate and leaving certificate plus.

Senator Healy Eames referred to risking all at present and she is not far wrong because Ireland now ranks 34th among OECD countries in terms of education expenditure as a percentage of GDP. Only six other OECD countries have a worse pupil-teacher ratio than ours and only two, Greece and Slovakia, invest less in education than we do as a percentage of GDP. The Minister's party speaks a lot about our knowledge economy, but let us have investment in that sector rather than rhetoric.

Where is the Green Party for this debate tonight? That was the party which, prior to 2007, made a virtue out of what it was going to achieve in education when in government. I am sure the Minister may have read the Green Party's policy document, entitled 50 Steps to a Better Education System. However, the 50 steps have become 50 backsteps as the Green Party has become an irrelevant spoke in the wheel of a Government for whom education funding means cuts and more cuts, despite what the Minister says. What does Deputy Paul Gogarty have to say about the potential of education now, given his remarks in the other House and as Chairman of the Committee on Education and Science? I am sure the Minister knows that Deputy Gogarty is not out on the plinth defending the Government's policy. He has been very silent, as have the Green Party's Senators.

Education is about building relationships. The Minister should ask school principals how they are managing resources, given the cost of transport, energy and refuse collection. School managers are out fundraising for such services.

I welcome the Minister's decision to reverse the summer works scheme. He did a good job in accepting the Opposition's advice to restore that scheme. The Minister has put a gun to teachers' heads on the issue of supervision and substitution, however. He took a system that was working well and broke it, but he should not have done so. I visited a school in Deerpark last week where students had no games because the principal could not let teachers out. That is wrong. Education is not just about the classroom, it goes beyond that.

The Minister should not reintroduce third level fees. The abolition of such fees led to increased participation in third level education. Bringing back such fees, however, would prevent many students from attending college. We should not do that.