Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Ba bhreá liom freisin fáitle a chur roimh fheirmeoirí na hÉireann agus iad tagtha go Baile Átha Cliath inniu. Is léir gur cuid lárnach agus fíor-thábhachtach i saol na tíre é saol na talmhaíochta. Caithfimid a chinntiú go bhfuil ar chumas daoine óga sa talmhaíocht ach go háirithe a ngairm bheatha a leanúint agus nach bealach chun bochtaineachta a bheadh i gceist ann. I add my voice to those welcoming our farmers to Dublin today. Farming is a vitally important part of our national life and some of the best of what we are is to be found in farming communities. It is a time of optimism in farming with the possibility for it to contribute to our national recovery. I think of the proposals in Food Harvest 2020. It is always important that we do not have the politics of envy around farming and that people recognise the sacrifices made by and the unsociable hours worked by farmers. Ensuring that people can not just make a living in farming but a decent living should always be central to national policy. We should look with great interest at the numbers of young people coming into farming life and ensure that they are able to continue that essential part of our national life.

I was not educated in a fee-paying school but I very much disagree with the Minister of State for Public and Commuter Transport, Deputy Alan Kelly, and wonder where he is coming from and who in government put him up to saying what he said. I dislike the politics of envy.

Based on figures of the Department of Education and Skills, it has been shown that those in fee-paying schools cost the State approximately ¤3,500 less than others. If this is multiplied by the number attending fee-paying schools, one arrives at a figure amounting to tens of millions of euro. This is quite close to the sum it is claimed would be saved by ceasing the funding of fee-paying schools.

We must recognise that everybody has a right to an education. It is entirely appropriate to pay for the teachers to educate pupils, regardless of their means. We should, by all means, tax those who have more, but I would not like to see circumstances in which only the rich could afford to go to fee-paying schools. Fee-paying schools have, by and large, contributed to a culture of solidarity. In this regard, I am familiar with the great work being done by the Holy Ghost schools, for example, and their work with Aidlink, a related charity. I know that students from St. Mary's College in Rathmines go, in great solidarity and with the proper spirit, to Ghana very regularly. They do not go for a holiday. This activity is not just happening in fee-paying schools. Is would be wrong, however, to engage in the politics of envy and to try to portray the matter as one in which well-off people are funded at the expense of the poor. That is not what is happening because it is cheaper to fund the education of a person who is attending a fee-paying school as his parents are already making sacrifices to contribute to his or her education. It is good that parents are ambitious for their children's education. We should encourage that.

We need to work against disadvantage in education. While we already do so, it is not enough. We must stop targeting others who, on the surface, appear to have more but in reality are making more of a sacrifice. The appropriate approach is to promote a culture of excellence, sacrifice and participation by parents, who, in some cases, forgo holidays and other privileges because they want to invest in their children's education. I wish them good luck. Let us stop sniping at them and trying to put them in a more disadvantageous situation.