Averil Power (Fianna Fail)

As I said, Members on all sides appreciate cuts must be made. All of my colleagues made that point in their contributions but those cuts should be fair and strategic. The changes the Government chose to deliver in education failed miserably on both counts. As I said, the Minister acknowledged the Government made mistakes, in particular in regard to DEIS. It is time it undid those mistakes - not review them or reshape them but reverse them.

Let there be no doubt among Members on all sides that short term savings in education will cost the State much more in the long run. In the current economic environment in which we are looking at where to prioritise expenditure, we must be smart and think about the longer term impact and how it will affect our prospects for recovery. From a social point of view, everyone only gets one childhood. The Minister should not deprive children in the most disadvantaged areas in this country of the only chance they have of getting a fair start in life. He should not tear the heart of our rural communities and force young people to go on the dole or emigrate instead of availing of the opportunity of a post graduate education. Those are the stark choice before us.

There is a fairer way. As I said, if the universal social charge had been increased only for those earning more than €115,000, it would have secured €40 million. Not one speaker opposite told me why that was not done, including the Minister.