OECD figures on education spending show that Fianna Fail blew the boom

Issued : Tuesday 7 September, 2010

The finding today that Ireland's spending on education in 2007 ranked fourth last among OECD countries, is a clear indication that successive Fianna Fail governments blew the boom.

At a time when there seemed to be no shortage of cash to spend on ill-conceived vanity projects and half-baked schemes like PPARS and electronic voting, many of our school children were languishing in overcrowded classes, and in schools that were housed in clapped out pre-fabs.

When it comes to prioritising spending in Education, the track-record of Fianna Fail in Government has been abysmal. Three years later it is clear that with the Greens in tow, matters have gone from bad to worse in the mean time.

This Government has continued to neglect our education system, and has presided over savage cuts that have seen a dramatic reduction in the numbers of Special Needs Assistants working with teachers in our schools; transition year programmes being scrapped in second level schools around the country, and hundreds of schools being denied the money they need, to invest in basic refurbishments, improvements and extensions.

The coming years will see our education system constantly struggle to cope with the rising growth in student numbers. The children born today will be in school in four years time. We don't have long to prepare. We need action now to ensure all the children of the nation can get the kind of education that they deserve.

The government needs to accelerate its school building programme so that the increasing numbers of school children, are not condemned to a pre-fab educational experience.