home » media centre » press releases

Labour education motion to focus on class sizes

Issued : Thursday 23 October, 2008

The Labour Party has today tabled the motion for Dail Private Members Time next week dealing with the education cuts.

The text of the motion reads:
That Dail Eireann deplores the series of educational cuts announced in the budget and subsequently by the Minister for Education; expresses its serious concern at the damage these cuts will cause to the education system and to the future prospects of our children; and calls on the government, in particular, to reverse the decision to increase class sizes at first and second level.

The Labour Party Spokesperson on Education, Ruairi Quinn said today:
"There is no doubt that the range of cutbacks announced in the budget and subsequently by the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, would cause enormous damage to our educational system and undermine the prospects of our children.

"There is growing anger among teachers and parents as the full implications of the cutbacks become evident. Already teachers are warning that some schools may have to close from January because of the cutbacks in teacher substitution. There are major concerns about the implications of the cuts for students with disabilities and those from minority or ethnic backgrounds. Parents face extra costs with increase in school transport costs at second level, while the massive turnout at the USI demonstration in Dublin illustrates the concerns of third level students at the more than 50% increase in the student registration charge and the threat to reintroduce tuition fees.

"There are a whole range of issues that we could have included in the Labour Party motion but we decided to concentrate on the issue of class sizes at first and second level, because this is an issue that will affect virtually every pupil and every school in the country.

"Not only has Fianna Fail totally reneged on commitments it gave prior to both the 2002 and 2007 general elections to reduce class sizes, but this must surely be the first time in living memory that any government has taken a policy to deliberately increase class sizes.

"I agree with the conclusion of Deputy Paul Gogarty in the Dail on Wednesday that this is the biggest single issue in the education cuts. Our motion next week will provide him and his Green Party colleagues with the opportunity to force the government to reverse this disgraceful decision. "