Why education cuts are a no-brainer

THE “dismay” expressed by Mick Billane (Letters, December 29) that ordinary people felt it necessary to protest at the cuts in education would be laughable if it was not so serious.

Investment in education gives a higher rate of return than investment in almost any other sphere. To cut expenditure on education is a no-brainer when we need to be competitive in order to get ourselves out of the recession.

Billions of taxpayers’ money are being spent propping up banks that have been reckless and worse.

Millions more are being spent paying superfluous ministers and spindoctors of all kinds. The insider elite are paying themselves far more than they are worth. Millions are being wasted on hare-brained projects favoured by politicians with more power than sense of responsibility.

In this situation all Mr Billane can do is take a potshot at the one area in public expenditure that has the capacity to help get us out of the recession. His admonishment that “we need to work together” is code for saying the rest of us ordinary yobs should know our place, shut up and stop criticising those we elected to positions of power.

That is tantamount to saying people in power are always right and that we should set up a dictatorship of the very people in government who contributed in no small share to getting us into this mess in the first place.

Anthony Leavy

Sutton

Dublin 13