Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Mooney for sharing his time with me which gives me, as my party's education spokesperson, an opportunity to comment briefly on the budget from an education point of view. There is no doubt this budget is very disappointing from an education perspective. The much-heralded extra teachers and SNAs are simply going to keep the services at exactly the same level at which they are now, having taken cut after cut in recent years. They will do nothing to reduce the increasing number of children who are in classes of 35 or more. There is no measure to improve the pupil-teacher ratio. The Government is still cutting day-to-day funding for schools next year. The capitation payment will be reduced by another 1% next year. We already have a situation where many schools struggle to pay basic utility bills like light and heat and parents are being asked to dip into their pockets to pay for minor repairs.

There will be an increase in the third level student service charge of €250, which will push third level beyond the means of many middle income families. Those on the very lowest incomes get grants and those on high incomes can afford third level education but the people who have been squeezed out of third level education, both by the service charge increases and by the complete removal of the maintenance grant for postgraduate students, are those on middle incomes. That is very unfair.

While the Government will do its best to sell the positive elements of this budget, it should be noted that additional cuts will be implemented next year, especially in the education sector. There has been no effort to reverse cuts such as the removal of guidance counsellor provision for schools, which has left some of our most vulnerable students without counselling services at a time when many young people struggle with serious mental health problems. We have a very serious problem in this country with suicide, particularly among young males, and nothing is being done in that regard. Similarly, the cuts to special needs services remain.

There were other alternatives and Fianna Fáil in its pre-budget submission opted to do nothing on income tax. We know that is not the most populist position in the world but we decided, on a point of principle, that income tax should not be cut, particularly not in the way the Government has cut it for high earners, because there is still so much that needs to be done in terms of restoring our public services, especially health and education. That is our position and we believe that approach would have been fairer and would have allowed the Government to do a lot more for our education system.