Olwyn Enright

[Kate P]

The issue in Balbriggan could only have been avoided if
a)children weren't on umpteen enrolment lists in the schools in the area and /or the schools could sort out enrolment districts between them as some schools do
b)Immigrants understood that students had to enrol in advance rather than turn up at the last minute
c) Balbriggan didn't have such a huge rental market that suddenly got filled up with ready made families
d) a huge number of those families hadn't arrived in March, April and May, only months before the new year started and

I'd say there was nothing the dept could have done in those situations, short of building massive new schools and classrooms all over the country on the offchance that there might be an influx of kids

[hiding behind a poster]

Olwyn might have put a pretty face on FG education but she really hadn't a clue. I worked in education for a long time and she really had no grasp of the issues or the intricacies. Mary Hanafin was a teacher and as a former teacher myself, I'd have great faith in her.

Maybe when you say "she hadn´t a grasp of the issues", that was simply because she didn´t agree with your viewpoint on them. I´d certainly be happier to have an Education minister that did something more than just agree with the teachers on everything, as Mary Hanafin does. Olwyn has a far more open mind on education than Hanafin ever will.

[hiding behind a poster]

[quote=Kate P]

we need to give our front bench spokespersons the resources to take on govt ministers and govt depts. Thats the reality and until it happens, we will be playing second fiddle.

What resources do they need to be well informed about their brief and argue their points cogently and with authority?
It would seem to me that only a lack of talent, ability to articulate or enthusiasm and interest for the job can stop spokespeople being, well, credible spokespeople[/quote:1t9ivftx]

Wrong. Government ministers have their entire department to advise and brief them, along with individual advisers for each minister, all paid for by the taxpayer. Opposition spokespeople don´t have that, and never will. It´ll never be easy for on Opposition spokesperson to compete on those terms.

[polkate]

We are a low tax economy and that is the way the people like it - more money in their own pockets. However, education, health, security all suffer. We can't have it both ways. We also have a top-heavy civil service, not in the areas where it is needed like teachers, doctors and nurses and guards, but in administration. Some government is going to have to tackle this and take on the unions. We all know it won't be Bertie Ahern, maybe Brian Cowan might have the bottle for it, but by then he will be leading a FF catch-all party and may not be allowed. I feel there is room for a centre-right party here who will tackle these problems and the one that comes to mind is FG. The next five years are vital for this party.

[Rapisco]

when i have seen her she has been reasonably articulate and able to argue her point pretty well. In the run in to the election she performed quite well when debating with Mary Hanafin re education. ?

Absolutely not, Hanifin DESTROYED her on Q&A before the election.

It was cringe factor. I was embaressed for her. She was ill-informed, ill-prepared and basically way out of her depth with the bauld Mary.

[stormwind]

Fine Gael and O.E. in particular have had an open goal to shoot at for the past few years ,namely mass illegal immigration.
Even today on newstalk 106 conor lenihan stated the immigrant population is between 13 and and 15%..This means there are between 120,000 to 200,000 more immigrants here ,most of whom are illegal.
The vast majority of africans going to school are illegal immigrants,this point was also mad by mary hanafin on newstalk 106 yesterday.

Unfortunately for FG they have nailed their colours to the mast when they helped elect an illegal alien from nigeria as mayor of Portlaoise.They are caught in a trap of their own making.
I was a lifelong FG supporter and even voted for them in the last election.However they have lost their way and stand for nothing anymore.

[drjimryan]

looking at the list, I feel she has good reason to be annoyed.......

[red365]

Red 365,

everything is paid for with parents' pay packets - and teachers' paypackets; I hope that's not the sum of your argument.
But if schools and parents want to build facilities then it's up to them to get applications in for the funding - too many parents (and I'm not suggesting you are one of them) don't get involved in anything to do with their kids' schools.

As it happens I'm not one of those parents. Quite the opposite in fact. But the system where parents have to build their own schoo is absolutely nuts! Imagine a situation where a developer could build a housing estate, but that it was up to residents to build the road that leads into it. That's what parents are being asked to do with regard to schools.

VEC didn't have legislative backing to do that at that stage - nor did they have the wherewithall to hire teachers etc.

Didn't stop her giving the go ahead to Co Dublin VEC establishing a primary school in Diswellstown.

If your kids are in a school that has only prefabs, then I wonder what the board of governors have been doing. There are programmes apart from the main capital programmes that allow development of facilities. And not all facilities and resources are buildings.

The Board of Management is spending endless hours on the phone to Dept officials, putting pressure on local politicians, filling in application forms, taking days off work to travel to the Dept in Tullamore, applying for planning permission for more prefabs, trying to keep parents anger under control etc etc.

I'm not in the mood to be lectured to on this.

[Paul R]

Fine Gael and O.E. in particular have had an open goal to shoot at for the past few years ,namely mass illegal immigration.
Even today on newstalk 106 conor lenihan stated the immigrant population is between 13 and and 15%..This means there are between 120,000 to 200,000 more immigrants here ,most of whom are illegal.

The obvious question is what is Conor Lenihan's basis for the claims he is making? They do not appear to be backed up by any official figures.

The CSO's figures from the last census showed that EU citizens make up the vast majority of the immigrants (with the British being the largest group). All EU citizens are legally entitled to be here.