Archbishop: Government squandered wealth

THE Government was accused last night by Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin of squandering the public wealth of the last decade which should have been used to improve school buildings, supports for immigrant children and reduce class sizes.

Dr Martin also blamed the shortage of school places in fast-growing communities on the bad planning of the Department of Education and local councils.

“Sadly, while education contributed decisively to Ireland’s unprecedented growth and wealth, not enough of the fruits of that growth and wealth have been poured back into education in a focussed way. We still have school buildings which are not up to adequate standards,” he said.

Dr Martin said Ireland has been slow to address the needs of international children and many schools still have very large class sizes.

“We have not got the process of planning right. There is very little thought being given to pre-school education for a future in which most grannies, who now do so much childcare, will be working grannies,” he said.

Dr Martin was delivering the National University of Ireland convocation centenary annual public lecture at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

“I am sure the Education Minister [Mary Hanafin] would refute me with a baffling list of figures concerning investment in schools especially in recent years. Credit should be given, yes, for what has been done, but deficiencies still exist.

“One can not help feeling that these deficiencies should have been addressed when economic resources were plentiful. They will, unfortunately, not be adequately addressed if or when those resources become less. An economic programme which underestimated the value of investment in education clearly misunderstood the nature of a modern economy,” Dr Martin said.

He said there has been a similar failure in healthcare where structures were created and capacity generated which now cannot be used because resourcing issues were not adequately addressed in advance.

Dr Martin said that, despite investment in education, there was bad planning and local authorities could be doing more.

“The natural desire of immigrants to be close to their own is at times being hijacked by the mechanisms of our property market which can drive those on subsidised rents or with limited ability to pay rent to congregate in certain areas or even to move rapidly from one area to another,” he said. “Ghetto schools, which we all wish to avoid, are not necessarily just the fruits of bad educational policies, but of a range of other policies which create ghettos for which the school cannot be held to blame.”

Dr Martin said he is puzzled by the caution with which a system of State-run primary schools is being rolled out, as a lack of pluralism in school patronage is putting unfair pressure on Catholic schools.

Three State-run schools are due to open under the patronage of Co Dublin VEC this year, but Ms Hanafin ruled out similar moves elsewhere until the project is piloted.

There is no agreement between her department, unions and school managers about how religion will be taught at the schools.