That this Council opposes the cuts to the Deis Educational Scheme that affect several schools, families and children in this city (Cllr Kieran McCarthy) (Kieran’s comments addressing his motion at Cork City Council meeting, 16 January 2012)

The Politics of Protest – DEIS CUTS

Lord Mayor, this is an unfamiliar side of the agenda for me to stand up with.

I see there is a familiar set of buzz words being touted in the Dail at the moment and both as always are at odds with each other – one is referred to as “In the National Interest” and the other is “The politics of protest”. Both condemning each other and both valid. Indeed without both, we’d have a form of dictatorship. Thanks be to God for the power of free speech.

But I’m a strong believer that the more the “in the national interest” cuts eat into the bone of how this country economically should function, the larger the debate that needs to happen

and to hit that “politics of protest” is in my view wrong.

I acknowledge the fact that the country is staying afloat on a knife edge at the moment. However, the debates and actions of government and the EU play out will forge a country that will just about scrape through the economic mess or we’ll fall out of Europe.

Whether or which, there will still be an Irish society of some sorts.

Before Christmas, there were several debates on what was being cut…plus the Deis scheme was one of them and in the same working week it emerged that bonuses were being given to advisers of the Taoiseach’s office.

As someone who works in schools in Cork and Cork County, I’m a big believer of the power of education, the power of youth, the importance of inspiring young people, the power of imagining and realising a brighter future and that quest by parents and guardians for a better life for the next generation

We have seen that us Irish are one of the best educated and most entrepreneurial in the world

We need to be investing in things that matter most

Principals in various media guises pointed out that there has been a quiet revolution in DEIS schools over the past number of years.  These schools have becoming nurturing, caring places where children learn through the caring relationships they have with teachers in smaller classes and through small group work. 

These cuts in teacher numbers will make class sizes bigger, especially in the junior classes, and make group work impossible.  Principals can back up their belief that it is the small class sizes and, consequently, the attention that the children get and the relationship that they have with their teachers that has pushed reading and maths standards up.

Children have flourished, emotionally and developmentally. Attendances have improved and parents are very much involved in children’s education. Progress has been slow and hard-fought but enormous. Cutting out DEIS legacy posts this week endangers all this progress.

Vulnerable children, the next generation, need to be cared for – now more than ever when families are pushed to the brink during a recession, when the communities in our urban areas are coming under increasing pressure. That plus that if we don’t this country will go round and round in circles never progressing and especially in the next ten years.