Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Ní hé seo an chéad uair dúinn na hábhair seo a phlé agus ní bheidh sé an uair dheireanach. Tacaím le cuid mhaith den mhéid a dúirt an Seanadóir Healy Eames maidir leis na scoileanna beaga i gConamara. Ní aontaím le gach rud a dúirt sí. Is ionsaí ar scoileanna beaga tuaithe agus Gaeltachta é an athrú seo sa pholasaí. Níl pobal na Gaeltachta sásta glacadh leis. Baineann an chéad ceist atá agam leis an value for money audit. I question the whole idea of the value for money audit. How can a review be done before we have seen the value for money audit? Is a value for money audit really how we should approach this issue? What about a value for children, VFC, or value for community audit instead? The point made by Senator Fidelma Healy Eames is correct. A school is a good deal more than a place where there are X number of bums on seats and we should recognise as much. We should have waited for the value for money audit because international best practice shows that smaller schools give value for money.

Let us consider the results coming from Gaeltacht schools in particular. It has been proven that the standard of mathematics and English in these schools is higher than the national average. This shows that these schools give a better education. Gaeltacht schools are being particularly targeted because they have had preferential pupil teacher ratios which we call on the Minister to retain. Up to now, there has been a ratio of four teachers for every 76 pupils. This is because is it a good deal more difficult to teach in a Gaeltacht school because of the lack of teaching resources. I call on the Minister not to throw this out the window because he would automatically put Gaeltacht schools at a disadvantage.

I call on the Minister to clarify the situation in respect of DEIS programme schools. The Minister stated he would carry out a review of the programme. When and how quickly will this take place? A deadline is coming at us down the tracks. This became apparent when the DEIS rural co-ordinator posts were taken by the last Government and the teachers whose jobs are in jeopardy have something called "the panel" looming over them. If they do not put their names on the panel they will be out of work in September. Will the Minister of State clarify for the Seanad when the panel will be announced this year? Can it be delayed until a decision is made on the DEIS programme schools and the legacy posts in particular? Once a teacher's name goes on the panel they are out the door and the battle is lost.

Senator Healy Eames referred to a scoil in An Cheathrú Rua, my local school, with regard to legacy posts. One legacy post is being taken away there. That legacy post is there for a reason. During the 1980s there was considerable unemployment and social disadvantage in the area. The possibility of children going to third level education was less likely because of the traditional educational attainments of their parents and their parents before them. Legacy posts were brought in and the number was increased. This made a considerable difference and now we see a far greater cohort of children from these areas going to third level education. However, if one takes away the legacy posts, one takes away this opportunity. This is our major issue with these cutbacks.

The Government will create a two-tier education system once more whereby the people who have money in their pockets and who are able to pay for extra help will do better in school and college. They will be able to do the Masters degrees that people on lower incomes cannot do because postgraduate grants have been cut. Forced amalgamation is under way as well. Instead of a process of collaboration and discussion around what type of amalgamation is practical, amalgamation is taking place by default. Numbers are being forced downwards so that schools have no opportunity to accept amalgamation because people take their children out of the smaller, one-teacher schools in particular. We need a proper debate on amalgamation and the use of retrospective figures from last September is not the way to go about it.

These cutbacks will result in transport issues as well. The Minister has already increased the cost of rural transport for schools and there is no proper transport network available. This will affect the numeracy and literacy that has improved so much in these schools. Millions of euro have been invested in many rural schools in recent years. In some cases the rooms in some of these schools in Ceantar na nOileán or in An Cheathrú Rua or other places in Gaeltacht areas are physically not big enough to facilitate a move from a four-teacher to a three-teacher class. There is not enough space for the number of pupils in these classes. The proposed idea of splitting classes between schools, whereby there would be naoínáin bheaga up to rang a haon in one school and rang a dó to rang a sé in another school, mooted by some members of Government parties is ludicrous. Parents will be crossing over each other to bring their small children to one school and then older children to another school and then going back again to collect them. These are the type of ludicrous plans being put forward which show that these people really do not understand the nature of living in a rural community.

The complex curricula especially in Irish language schools makes it particularly difficult. Several other cuts have been introduced but other options were available. An end has been put to the Gaeltacht grants for ábhair oidí, the teachers who teach as Gaeilge in primary schools. There have been cuts in capitation and in Gaeltacht scholarships and there have been cuts in non-adjacent grants and grants for post-graduates. The amount of money being saved is limited.

Senator D'Arcy referred to the budgetary proposals of Sinn Féin. He should have read all of them. If we had taken the €0.25 billion from the €1.25 billion that we paid to the bondholders, it would have given us €250 million.