Green TD says education budget ‘a lost opportunity’

FIANNA FÁIL was last night accused of a “clear breach of the Programme for Government” by one of the Green Party’s most vocal TDs.

Chairman of the Oireachtas Education Committee Paul Gogarty said the recent budget was like the proverbial curate’s egg.

“It’s good in parts, but with bits that would turn one’s stomach, none more so than in the area of education,” he said.

The Programme for Government agreed between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party in the aftermath of the general election pledged to increase education funding by €350 million a year. However, in the December budget, an additional sum of €95m was allocated.

Last night, Mr Gogarty accused Finance Minister Brian Cowen of being “short-sighted” in not delivering on the commitments to which the Green Party had signed up.

“Enormous amounts of money were borrowed for the stamp duty measures which would have been more effective six or seven years ago,” he said. “I think the money spent on stamp duty could have been better invested. When an economy is under pressure, it would be my belief that the sensible and logical thing to do is invest in the future.”

The Dublin Mid-West TD argued that the Finance Minister could have raised taxes or borrowed more to fund educational projects. He said funding education is the “morally and fiscally correct thing to do but, perhaps regrettably, not the politically astute thing to do”.

The TD said described the education budget as a “lost opportunity”.

“I’m sure there may be more money next year and we’ll see greater investment, but I can’t see us making up the balance. I can’t see why the investment can’t be made now,” he said.

Massive investment is required at pre-school level so that children with learning disabilities and behavioural difficulties are assessed early, he said. Equally, investing in adult literacy is essential in breaking the cycle of poverty and disadvantage.

“Investing in educational welfare officers and backup services helps to break the cycle of school absenteeism which leads to the dole queue, a dead end job or a prison cell,” he said. “Those are all forthright reasons for investing in education, but also taxpayers’ money goes down the drain if we put someone into a young offenders centre or prison. It is a no-brainer.”