Labour chairman: Quinn’s cuts to resource teaching betrays party values

In an email to Mr Quinn last Friday seeking an urgent meeting, the Galway East TD said he wanted to discuss if such cuts need to take place. “I have been contacted by an inordinate number of labour members who have expressed concern that these proposed cuts go against core values of the Labour Party and once again attack the most vulnerable in society,” he wrote.
The minister’s spokesperson said mail to his Oireachtas email address is usually sent automatically to his department email, but Mr Keaveney’s letter had not been received last night.
It was prompted by last week’s news that rising applications mean another 12% cut in one-to-one teaching time for 42,500 pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools.
Mr Keaveney was dismissed from Labour’s parliamentary party after voting against last December’s budget, but said he is raising this issue irrespective of what people will say about his motives. He said a trend is emerging in how groups who cannot protect themselves are being treated, with cuts to mobility allowance for disabled people being followed by cuts to resource teaching.
For Mr Quinn to lift a cap on resource teacher numbers, and restore the 25% cut from one-to-one teaching since 2011, would cost €65m a year. Mr Keaveney said every cent spent by his department should be scrutinised to find the answer: “The answer isn’t to distress families or single out groups who had no hand, act or part in the economic difficulty we’re experiencing.”
Mr Quinn’s spokesperson said he will brief the Labour parliamentary party as usual tomorrow on any education matters that arise, including this issue.
Labour and Fine Gael TDs will have to back the cuts in a vote tomorrow night on a Government motion, after two nights of debate on a Fianna Fáil motion on the issue. FF is calling for resource teaching to be kept at least at this year’s levels, 85% of hours set out in 2005 Department of Education rules, and for pupils who need a special needs assistant to get the appropriate level of care.
Enda Kenny’s Castlebar office has been added to venues where thousands of parents, teachers and children will protest tomorrow night at the same time as an Irish National Teachers’ Organisation rally outside the Dáil to oppose the cuts.