Sir, – Today, the Union of Students in Ireland will hold a demonstration in protest against any further cuts to student grants, the reintroduction of student fees, and any further increase in the student contribution. Labour Youth will stand shoulder to shoulder with the USI to march in defence of the right to universal provision and equality of access in education, in accordance with 15 years of Labour policy.
Children and young people must not be made pay for this crisis; they played no part in the destruction of our economy and their education is the key to our recovery. Labour Youth believes that the education budget, along with payments and services for children and young citizens, must be protected in Budget 2012, and that they could be protected if we decide, as a society, that we are willing to find the funds to do so. Ireland was already a low-tax, low-spend economy before the crash; we are now moving, with little debate, towards a short-sighted but long-term cutting down of our services to meet the level of our collapsed tax base. There are alternatives, and they have been outlined by Tasc, Social Justice Ireland and Ictu to name a few.
The Labour Party contested the general election on a 50/50 platform between public spending cuts and tax increases; Fine Gael advocated a 75/25 ratio.
The final figure has been set at roughly 60/40. The taxes-versus-cuts debate is not an academic discussion: it is a political tug-of-war between Labour’s social democratic principles and the centre-right views of Fine Gael. The flawed logic of austerity dictates a €3.8 billion adjustment this year; within these confines, the deviation from Labour’s original 50/50 proposal as an outcome of coalition equates to over €380 million in additional cuts.
To put this in perspective, the entire adjustment to the Education and Skills budget in 2011 amounted to €307 million. Reaching this figure meant a 5 per cent reduction in capitation grants, including grants for adult literacy, community education, the school completion programme and Youthreach – to save €22 million. It meant cutting grant rates to college students, curtailing benefits to mature students, and drastically reducing eligibility for the higher non-adjacent grant payment – all to save €51 million. It meant reducing support payments to trainees on Fás and VTOS schemes to save €9 million. It meant increasing school transport costs, increasing the student contribution by €500 to €2,000 and foisting a new €200 charge on Post-Leaving Certificate students. Cuts to education have also meant budget-balancing restrictions on resource teaching and a crude and insensitive cap on the number of Special Needs Assistants.
In the years to come, the children and young people of today will ask what we did in 2012, when the Troika was in town and Western economies lurched towards recession. We could say that we forged a social contract to protect them from the elements, that we made sacrifices to find that extra 10 per cent in funds, and that we protected education from the fallout of the banking crisis. That would be a statement befitting a real Republic. It seems unlikely that Enda Kenny will make this statement when he addresses the nation in December, but it is a choice available to us, and we will march today with the students of Ireland in defence of that alternative. – Yours, etc,