Green Party oppose education cuts in Budget 2011. Oh really???

[OceanFrog]

According to todays Irish Times Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley made clear his party would oppose education cuts. “You can look at the renewed programme for Government and you can see there that there are priorities that have been put in place, for example education spending is extremely important,” he said.

Paul Gogarty has claimed the education cuts from Budget 2009 have been reversed. He also claimed that his support of these cuts made him "vomit continuously", And what of poor old Trevor Sargent? He says the education cuts "turns my stomach".

Well, I have news for Mssrs. Gormley, Gogarty and Sargent ... The education cuts have not been reversed. In fact, there were education cuts in the December 2009 budget, and there continue to be education cuts in 2010.


"Funding the University sector in Ireland" - The extent of the financial and operational crisis facing the university sector has been outlined in a stark letter sent to the seven presidents by Higher Education Authority (HEA) chief executive Tom Boland. He tells the colleges to brace themselves for an unprecedented range of cuts over the next year as the Government seeks to achieve €3 billion in overall exchequer savings. It is a bleak scenario.


"30 disadvantaged schools to lose librarians" - June 2010, It has been announced that up to 30 of the country's most disadvantaged schools are to lose librarian services that were granted in an attempt to boost literacy levels. Tánaiste and Minister for Education Mary Coughlan has confirmed that the contracts of many of the librarians working on the scheme will not be renewed over the summer. €9m has been invested to open the libraries.


"FF/Green Party announce 353 fewer SNA posts" - March 2010, Minister for Education Mary Coughlan has told the Dáil that 353 fewer special needs assistants will be sanctioned following completion of a review of special education.


This document from UCD "Education policy choices in an economic downturn" outlines additional education cuts - Professor Sheelagh Drudy says. “The December 2009 budget extended the cuts in education. The 2008 October budget set out a programme of cuts in services which included an increase in class sizes in primary and post-primary schools, and a consequent loss of teaching posts, cuts in the allocations to teacher professional development, cuts in higher education funding and cutbacks on a range of schemes designed to support disadvantaged and marginalised pupils.” Commenting on impact of the 2009 budget cuts, Drudy noted that education cuts amounted to €134 million ...


The National Association of VTOS Co-ordinators - The loss of the maintenance grant for VTOS students doing PLC courses, uneven though it was, will make progression for our graduates more difficult


Further education cuts are outlined in the "Summary of 2010 Budget Measures".


I'm not sure what planet Gormley and Gogarty are currently resident on, but the Green Party claim that "education will be protected" and that the "education cuts have been reversed" are clearly nonsense.

Keep on vomiting Paul.




..

[OceanFrog]

Fianna Fáil and the Greens have slashed school budgets by a massive €2 billion in the Capital Expenditure Programme announced this week and this will have a devastating effect on schools and children, according to Fine Gael Education Spokesman, Fergus O’Dowd TD link.

Once again, Fianna Fáil and the Greens are targeting the most vulnerable and it is children who will feel the pain of this massive cutback.

The Revised Capital Expenditure Programme has actually slashed schools budgets by 40% when compared to the National Development Plan. To add insult to injury, the Government have attempted to hide this cut.

The NDP provided for €5.1 billion in funding to the school building programme with €4.5 billion going to the Schools Infrastructure Sub-Programme, €318 million going on curriculum reform and professional development and €252 million being made available for ICT in schools. However, the Revised Capital Expenditure Programme merged these three spending areas into one budget as opposed to breaking them down into individual budgets as was done in the NDP. The Budget in the capital expenditure programme was €3.1 billion, a massive €2 billion write-down from what was pledged before.

It is clear that Fianna Fáil and the Greens merged the spending areas into one budget in an attempt to hide the cuts but there is no way that schools across the country will ignore a 40% cut in promised funds.

..

[toughbutfair]

It is a bit silly to oppose any cut but not come up with your own specific cut.

[OceanFrog]

It is a bit silly to oppose any cut but not come up with your own specific cut.

The point of the thread is that the Green Party are saying they will protect education spending, and that all the education cuts from Budget 2009 have been reversed.

I have shown this is clearly not the case.




..

[SPN]

Since Froggie's very first post I have found that her malicious twisting of facts, misrepresentation, and barefaced lies to be highly offensive.

I have taken the view that she is deliberately acting in such an offensive way in order to settle some grudge, but the point has been made to me that she may be suffering from a mental illness, so from now on I will bear that in mind and put "Munster Rules" to one side and accept that she may not actually understand that her lies are in fact complete fantasyland stuff.

So, let's simply refer to the numbers, as published on the Department of Finance Website.

Revenue in 2007 was €47 Billion. Education spend was €7.7 Billion, or 16%

Revenue in 2008 was €42 Billion. Education spend was €8.2 Billion, or 19.6%

Revenue in 2009 was €32 Billion. Education spend was €8.0 Billion, or €25%

Revenue in 2010 is expected to be €32 Billion. Education is expected to be €8.0 Billion, or 25%

So while there has been some reprioritisation of how we spend the scarce resources that are available to us, the assertion that an increase from €7.7 Billion to €8.0 Billion in education spending is a cut, or that an increase of the proportion of Government Revenue that is spent on Education from one sixth to one quarter is a a cut, beggars belief.

::
:

[RahenyFG]

YES YES YES! the FF-Green Coalition is going to collapse at the end of the year and just in time for my birthday. An FG elected government in and around my birthday would be a great present

[Malbekh]

Since Froggie's very first post I have found that her malicious twisting of facts, misrepresentation, and barefaced lies to be highly offensive.

In other words, she is politically adept.

In the same way that FF are politically adept.

In the same way that the Greens are (after three years of training) politically adept.

[OceanFrog]

Since Froggie's very first post I have found that her malicious twisting of facts, misrepresentation, and barefaced lies to be highly offensive.

I have taken the view that she is deliberately acting in such an offensive way in order to settle some grudge, but the point has been made to me that she may be suffering from a mental illness, so from now on I will bear that in mind and put "Munster Rules" to one side and accept that she may not actually understand that her lies are in fact complete fantasyland stuff.

SPN, do you know me? Who exactly do you think I am?

Claiming that I suffer from a mental illness is low even for you. The fact that you consistently resort to the worst kind of personal insult says a lot about the quality of your argument. It also says a lot about you as a person.




..

[OceanFrog]

Education cuts supported by the Green Party over the last few months are as outlined below. This is not SPiN (an example from a Green fanboi above) ... there are actual cuts.

Don't believe the Green hype that they are protecting education ... the Green Party are actively supporting cuts to the education budget.

1. A massive €2 billion in the Capital Expenditure Programme in Education announced this week.

2. "Funding the University sector in Ireland" - The extent of the financial and operational crisis facing the university sector has been outlined in a stark letter sent to the seven presidents by Higher Education Authority (HEA) chief executive Tom Boland. He tells the colleges to brace themselves for an unprecedented range of cuts over the next year as the Government seeks to achieve €3 billion in overall exchequer savings. It is a bleak scenario.

3. "30 disadvantaged schools to lose librarians" - June 2010, It has been announced that up to 30 of the country's most disadvantaged schools are to lose librarian services that were granted in an attempt to boost literacy levels. Tánaiste and Minister for Education Mary Coughlan has confirmed that the contracts of many of the librarians working on the scheme will not be renewed over the summer. €9m has been invested to open the libraries.

4. "FF/Green Party announce 353 fewer SNA posts" - March 2010, Minister for Education Mary Coughlan has told the Dáil that 353 fewer special needs assistants will be sanctioned following completion of a review of special education.

5. This document from UCD "Education policy choices in an economic downturn" outlines additional education cuts - Professor Sheelagh Drudy says. “The December 2009 budget extended the cuts in education. The 2008 October budget set out a programme of cuts in services which included an increase in class sizes in primary and post-primary schools, and a consequent loss of teaching posts, cuts in the allocations to teacher professional development, cuts in higher education funding and cutbacks on a range of schemes designed to support disadvantaged and marginalised pupils.” Commenting on impact of the 2009 budget cuts, Drudy noted that education cuts amounted to €134 million ...

6. The National Association of VTOS Co-ordinators - The loss of the maintenance grant for VTOS students doing PLC courses, uneven though it was, will make progression for our graduates more difficult

7. Further education cuts are outlined in the "Summary of 2010 Budget Measures".



..

[SPN]

SPN, claiming that I suffer from a mental illness is low even for you. The fact that you consistently resort to the worst kind of personal insult says a lot about the quality of your argument.

.

There you go again with the misrepresentations and lies.

I never "claimed" that you suffer from a mental illness, I merely pointed out that it has been suggested as one possible cause for your pathological behaviour.

The quality of my argument, which you neglect to address, is that the Greens have overseen a >50% increase in the proportion of Government Revenue that is dedicated to Education.

Your warped worldview prevents you from accepting this reality, and instead you pretend that reallocations and reprioritisations of resources by line management "proves" that your prejudices are a reality.

::
: