Green Party Councillor Malcolm Noonan has criticised his own party and the decision taken by the Minister for Education to increase class sizes.
Cllr Noonan says that the repercussions will have a negative effect on children in Carlow and Kilkenny.
However, he said that although he was dissatisfied, he was not considering his allegiance to the Green Party as a party, and he doesn’t believe they should leave Government.
Speaking following the Dáil debate on education cuts on Tuesday, he expressed his disappointment that his own party is not taking a stronger stand on the issue at cabinet level.
“Ireland now has the second highest primary class sizes in the OECD countries. Primary education is already chronically under-funded and these cuts will further disadvantage children and place increased pressure on school resources which are already at breaking point,” he said.
Councillor Noonan spoke at a Green Party meeting last week about the education cuts and pointed out to party leader, John Gormley, that any budgetary measures that directly affect children or marginalised groups, are unacceptable.
“I am disappointed that we have not exercised more leverage to have these measures reversed. It could be done within the framework of a supplementary budget in the new year and many of the proposals made by Deputy Paul Gogarty could achieve the same savings for the department without affecting vulnerable groups,” he said.”However, we can only do something about this if we are in government and so that is why we are going to stay,” he said.
He was also angry at the insinuation that the concerns raised were simply scaremongering.
“I also do not agree with the Education Minister’s assertion that teachers and parents are scaremongering, in fact I feel that the effects are being played down by Government. I find it very difficult to accept that a party such as ours, that has put equal access to education as a central plank of our manifesto, can stand over these cuts.
“While it is difficult to reconcile this with the positive change our ministers are making in their respective departments, I will continue to voice my dissatisfaction with the savagery of these cuts and their effects on the future of our children and this country,” concluded Cllr Noonan.
Meanwhile, Labour Party councillor and school principal, Sean O’ hArgain is very concerned about the consequences of the budget education cuts.
He says, “already there are over 2,000 students in Kilkenny primary schools in classes with over 30 students. This is simply unacceptable after 12 years of an economic boom. It is outrageous that our children will now linger in some of the biggest classes in the whole of the EU.
“It is unfair of the Government to make children, their parents and teachers, suffer for Fianna Fáil’s mismanagement of the economy. As with medical cards, the Government wants to make the vulnerable in our society pay the price for their incompetence,” he declared.
And INTO spokesman in Kilkenny Joe McKeown is extremely angry at the government plans.
He says, “next year, Kilkenny children will be in the most over-crowded classes in Europe. This is a direct result of decisions taken by local politicians John McGuinness, Bobby Aylward and Mary White.
“It is a savage attack on primary schools that has shocked and angered parents and teachers, who together campaigned for smaller classes for young children. It is clearly asking the children of Kilkenny to pay for the mistakes of adults.
“This year, thousands of Kilkenny children are among the 100,000 pupils in classes of more than thirty pupils. This is double the number of children in the average primary school class in Luxembourg,” said Mr McKeown.
He warned. “the government will earn the contempt of teachers and parents if this shocking decision is not reversed.”
