David Higgins

With both Labour and Fine Gael now polling in and around 30% in the opinion polls it’s important that we look deep into both party’s policy documents and policy positions on all the major issues in Ireland today.

Labour may have a strong uppercut with knockout one-liners and visible anger in the Dáil, led by Eamon Gilmore, however do they have a plan to save the country?

Both parties’ websites have policy pages. Labour’s is their “Our ideas and Policies” page while Fine Gael has a “recent policy catalogue” on its site. I have drawn from both these pages to compare the two parties.

Public Sector

Let’s first jump back to last year’s budget and to the thorny issue of public sector pay. Labour is well known as a political wing for the trade union movement and thus their pre-budget proposal was lacking in specific detail. Both Fine Gael and Labour committed to the government’s reduction of €1.3bn in the public sector pay bill however Labour only gave an aspiration to achieve this reduction through negotiations.

Fine Gael, on the other hand, came out with an extensive and detailed alternative budget that gave detailed breakdowns of where the money would come from. This specified that the €1.3bn would be made by a direct cut in pay to those earning above €30,000 in the public sector. There was no aspiration or hope for the future, just hard figures that spelled out the reality. Fine Gael even went above the €1.3bn suggested and proposed a further €500m reduction in the public sector pay bill through redundancies in the HSE, CIE and through the closing down of wasteful quangos.

Next, we come to the Croke Park deal, a sweet guarantee that ensures not a single pay cut or forced redundancy in the public sector unless there is a further deterioration in the economy. Seems pretty fair to me and that’s why Fine Gael has come out in favour of the proposal. We haven’t engaged in a massive campaign to promote the deal, or to influence union members. We’ve simply stated our position on the matter, a position the public are entitled to know.

However Labour have ducked and dodged this issue right from the beginning. They will not state any position on the deal and if we are to take their members view we can see that two motions were passed at this year’s party conference calling for the restoration of the budget pay cuts and an abolition of the pension levy! That’s the only position I’ve seen from Labour on this issue and so I am led to conclude that this is their policy position on the matter.

Banking

Labour and Fine Gael have roughly the same view on this issue, the establishment of a state run investment bank. This is the good bank option, as opposed to the government’s bad bank, NAMA. Fine Gael announced this policy first and then Labour followed suit months later with an almost identical proposal.

The main difference between the two parties is that Labour favours an ideologically lead nationalisation of the banks. This would be catastrophic for the banks because ultimately a bank belongs free in the marketplace. It’s almost like releasing an animal back into the wild where it belongs, with all the other animals. Keeping a bank nationalised is like keeping an animal in captivity.

Stimulus

Labour has no known policy for a stimulus package for the economy while Fine Gael has a plan to create over 100,000 jobs in the energy, communications and water sectors. It’s called NewERA and it’s a costed and well thought out plan to improve our infrastructure and create employment in the process. Sadly, once again Labour fails to even produce a plan on this, let alone to include specifics costings of their plan.

Health

I have to give Labour some credit in this area. They were the first party to endorse the principal of universal healthcare back in 2001. Fine Gael has since come around to the concept and has adopted a different model based on the Dutch system. The fundamental difference here again is specifics. The Fine Gael proposal has plenty of detail and they’ve even created a dedicated website to explain their policy and what it will provide to the public. Labour continues to only support the principal and it seems they simply want a full bureaucratic public healthcare system that has plagued our system and other health systems in the UK, France and elsewhere in Europe.

The Dutch model means that everyone has private health coverage, it has ended hospital waiting lists and the Fine Gael plan proposes FREE GP care for all, while keeping healthcare spending at its present levels. This can be done by cutting out all the managerial waste in the HSE and by employing competition between insurance companies. Fine Gael sees the benefit of the free market while Labour still remains in its backward mode of socialism and state control.

Education

Education is a huge priority for Fine Gael. Following the budget in December, Education Spokesman Brian Hayes organised large demonstrations against the removal of special needs teachers from a school in Tallaght. This school had 2/3 of its staff removed, in what can only be described as a heartless budget.

As well as protecting the vulnerable in our education system Fine Gael has two key proposals in the third level sector. The first is the re-introduction of third level fees. Our principal is that no student should pay at the door but instead pay after they have completed college. This would be a student loan system similar to many other countries across Europe and in the US. It’s fair to the students and it provides much needed funds to colleges and universities and this will maintain a high standard of facilities and service into the future.

Sadly the Labour party won’t budge on this issue. They aspire to a completely free third level sector, something that is neither practical nor affordable. Since free third level access was introduced in the 1990s it has only served to give higher income families an easy ride while it has not lead to a higher participation rate among lower income families. With Fine Gael’s proposal, supports can be given to those who need it, while those who can pay, pay.

Fine Gael has also recognised the economic benefits of overseas students coming to study in Irish universities. Simple measures that are outlined in their policy document would lead to tens of thousands of more students coming here each year.

Labour also has a policy document called “Priorities in Education”. Again, it’s another document that is purely aspirational and it doesn’t take any regard to our huge deficit and national debt. It even calls for an increase in education spending and to make our spending on education higher than European norms! We just don’t have the money to do that. I agree with Labour’s views on the separation of Church and school however otherwise it’s a completely useless document.

Half of the document is “Labour’s school for the 21st Century”. Firstly this school isn’t theirs, it’s designed by an architecture firm and it’s nothing new! My school in Knocklyon, built in 2000 and other schools like Malahide Community School have almost identical designs. Labour thinks it’s looking to the future, but it’s actually a decade behind! This cross section is almost identical to my school.

It’s important that we know which schools are the best in the country. It’s even more important locally. Parents faced with the choice of multiple schools in their area should not have to rely on anecdotal evidence of where to send their child for the 6 most important years of their upbringing.

Factual evidence and statistics should properly rank these schools and they should be made available to everyone.

Feeder Schools list?

Up to now all Secondary Schools have been measured based on the % of students that the school in question sends to third level education. There are so many flaws with this system and even though my own school made the top ten list this year, it’s still an unfair way of measuring performance of teachers and pupils.

In school (A), all the students go to third level but they’ve all received no more than 300 points and they go to do level 6 courses. School (B) has bright and intelligent students however a large group of lads go abroad to find work and another group of girls take a year off for “self discovery”. The rest of its students all score over 400 points and they go to third level.

You would assume that in any case School (B) would have a higher rank due to its higher achieving students. Instead School (A) tops the league with 100% and School (B) sits at 80%.

This system is fundamentally flawed

It’s also flawed when it’s measured by the % of students going on to “University”. Under the Universities Act 1997 only the following 7 institutions are recognised as a university

• Dublin City University
• University College Cork
• University College Dublin
• National University of Ireland, Galway
• National University of Ireland, Maynooth
• University of Limerick
• Trinity College, Dublin

It’s amazing that a law has enshrined a select few colleges as better than any Institute of Technology or any other college.

The Sunday Times today released their list of feeder schools and it ranks the schools by the % of students in “University”. My school, which was in the top ten based on third level is ranked 137th due to this manipulation of figures. What a stupid system!!

The ST didn’t even get my schools figures right. As I said, we made the Irish Times top ten with 100% going to third level. However the ST says that we only sent 95% of our students. It seems to have left out any students who went abroad, further than the British Isles.

I don’t care where graduates go, it’s still 3rd level education!!

What we need is to measure schools by the average number of points the students get. That would make much more sense. It has its flaws too, but it’s a much better system than what we have at present.

What we shouldn’t do is measure by socio-economic background as this recent list tried to do. High School Rathgar came out on top when they took into account the number of Immigrants in the locality, the unemployment rate and the rate of previous participation in third level education.

Immigrants?? What have they to do with this???????

I know people from Knocklyon who go there and they travel 20 minutes by bus. Measuring the locality of the school tells you nothing when students come from all over the city.

If parents didn’t go to third level then it’s not the case that their kids won’t either! Both my parents have little or no 3rd level education, yet my Dad is a successful manager and my Mom is a fantastic house wife, and she runs music classes part time.

Also I need to point out that my school is much better than most, and it’s a public school. Looks like all you posh South Dubliners spent your money on status rather than on education!!

The Celtic Tiger saw a splurge in easy money. If you wanted a loan, you got it! For a car, boat, house, or TV, it was a free for all. Now the banks are out of cash and everything we bought is worth nothing!

The principal of credit is an admirable one. It allows people to get what they want and pay for it later.

However it does not come without a price. Interest is usually applied on a loan but there can be greater consequences.

For some weird reason Shakespeare knows our world better than we do! He saw these consequences quite clearly and many of his great plays detail them.

In 3rd year we studied The Merchant of Venice. This entire play revolves around a loan. The Jew, Shylock, seeks his revenge over Antonio by causing him to default on his loan. Today in Ireland you get sent to jail for this (in the most extreme of cases), but in those days you were removed of a pound of flesh!

Shylock is like a relentless bank that will stop at nothing to get its money back. At least in those days you knew the forfeit of the loan. During the Celtic Tiger the bank told you nothing and the government said that prosperity would last forever!

Even in Hamlet, which I now study in 5th year, the writing is on the wall that loans are to be avoided at all costs.

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

It ruins marriage, you lose friends, and most importantly you can lose everything you own!!!

This crisis has been the wake up call us Irish need.  China, who’s population save a large % of their income, is much better placed to deal with recessions like these. Thankfully some of us are taking the message seriously.

40% of adults are now debt free

This good news story shows that Irish people are beginning to save, but for how long?

If we see a boom again will personal spending rocket and will the loan cycle begin again?

It needs to be stopped and people need to realise that living within their means is the best way to live.

Yesterday saw most Public Servants walk out of work to protest at the cuts that haven’t happened yet. From early morning pickets were placed throughout the country at various locations.

However, also from early morning there were traffic jams on the roads leading to border towns like Newry and Enniskillen. Coincidence? I think not. There are private sector workers who had to take the day off to mind their kids who had no school to go to. However it’s likely that at least half of the shoppers were public servants who caused the 7 mile queue into Newry Town Centre this morning.

It’s a PR disaster for the Unions. General Secretary of IMPACT Peter McLoone dismissed this as “nonsense” on both TV3 and RTÉ. He said that public servants turned out in their “tens of thousands” to picket government departments and buildings. That’s great, but what were the other 200,000 public servants doing if only a few tens of thousands of them were out?

Also last night Dublin City saw huge volumes of people in its clubs and bars. One taxi driver commented that it was like a Friday or Saturday night with three times the fares for a Monday. The same taxi-man overheard a conversation between some of his public sector passengers. “They better hold the next strike on a Friday so we get a 3 day weekend”!

Oh poor cash strapped public servants. The world’s smallest violin playing the world’s saddest song just for you!

I passed my closed school today only to find one person on the picket, our Caretaker. Sure, some of the teachers were at the mass protest at the department of education but it seriously shows a lack of solidarity when he’s the only one there. He’d be the lowest paid of the staff of the school and so I sympathise with him. He was out in the cold while other teachers stayed in and corrected homework.

People on the dole should be furious about this. They’ve lost their Christmas Bonus and they are set to lose more from their support after next month’s budget. For many the loss of the bonus has meant that many will forgo buying presents this year with the cash going to repay bills or mortgages. They look at public servants who have the day off and who have the cash to spend up north or in packed shopping centres like Dundrum and they cringe.

This strike really has been a disaster. Sure the government saved a few bob from not paying the workers but it won’t be near the €70m that is borrowed everyday to pay for public services.

Next Thursday we have the same thing again. I can’t wait. I bet the queue to Newry will be 10 miles this time ?

Dear Teacher,

St. Colmcilles Community School has always prided itself on a high level of punctuality and attendance. Our tight rules in this area reflects the school’s belief that every minute spent in school is precious and that time spent out of school puts in jeopardy the academic prospects of its students.

The teachers unions that represent the staff of this school will soon ballot their members on industrial action ahead of December’s budget. The proposals will allow their members to go on strike if rates of pay are reduced or if there are compulsory redundancies imposed on their members.

I am urging all teachers to vote against strike action.

A strike would only serve to damage the education of the students of this school. Pupils studying for either the Junior or Leaving Certificate would miss out on vital information and this could affect their performance in the state examinations next June. Ultimately it would be the fault and responsibility of teachers if a 6th year student were to be five or ten points short of their desired college course. I know that parents, students and especially teachers don’t want this situation to arise.

The proposed cuts in the budget are going to be tough for many of you and coming from a family where income is down over 20% I can sympathise greatly with your situations. However the response to cuts should not be to cut days out of the school year or to cut other engagements like parent teacher meetings. It is the height of hypocrisy.

Teachers have a battle to fight with the government and it seems that the unions want to fight it in the hallways of our schools instead of at the gates of Leinster House. I condemn this completely and I will not stand for the students of this country being held for ransom.

I hope many of you will put the needs of your students before the desires of your union when you cast your ballot,

Thank You

David Higgins

Today the ASTI teacher’s union said that its members would no longer attend out of hours parent teacher meetings. 6 of these are held each year in every school to cover pupils in all 6 school years. The union says it is in response to the recent education cuts.

So wait, in protest of cuts they cut something else???

I’m not going to make a huge deal about this because parent teacher meetings are a relatively insignificant part of second level education. It’s simply a chance to meet your child’s teachers in every subject once a year and get feedback first hand on their progress in the junior and leaving certificates. Personally it’s convenient for my parents to meet my teachers and I think it’s important that parents know who’s teaching their children.

However the underlying problem with this is the strength of the unions. They continue to flex their muscles in the run up to the budget, completely opposed to pay cuts and even seeking pay rises in the health service. Cuts need to happen and the unions will destroy this country if they’re allowed have their way.

This year the ASTI celebrates its 100th year in existence. A century of Service they say. Maybe it has been a service up to now but for how long?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of the Irish haters. I consider Irish to be an integral part of our heritage and I really believe it has a future in Irish society. However in order to achieve this bi-lingual society we need to teach a modern and relevant course.

Already into my first week of 5th year I’ve been astounded at the irrelevance of everything I’ve done so far in Irish. Our first piece of work was the poem “Jack”. The poem is set in the west of Ireland and it describes a farmer’s son who is described as a “strapping young lad” (This is, of course a translation).

The first problem with the Irish course is the poetry section. I believe that poetry is best left to English class, firstly because Irish poetry is inferior to English language poetry and crucially because I believe poetry is not a constructive device in learning a second language.

A fair amount of the time in class has been spent outlining the historic setting of the poem and the emotions involved. How has this anything to do with learning the language??? Because of this I feel like I’m in a History lesson about the famine times and the west of Ireland. History of Irish is a section of the leaving cert course. I accept that these are important topics however they have no place in what is supposed to be a language class.

I also have a problem with the words used such as “strapping young lad”. When am I ever going to use this phrase in either English or Irish? Other words like nostalgic came up too and again I don’t see the reason to learn these words.

The only time in life I see myself using Irish is in politics. Should I manage to make it to be a TD I’ll still make up the majority of Oireachtas members who can’t speak Irish fluently. George Lee, during his recent election campaign commented on the extent of his Irish abilities: “Níl much Gaeilge agam”. Also even if I do become fluent in Irish I will never use the phrase “strapping young lad” in a speech!

The Irish course is too culturally focused and it has abandoned the core objectives of any language: speaking. I welcome the recent decision to increase the % of marks going towards your oral exam however from what I hear even the questions in the oral are unusual and removed from an everyday normal conversation.

If Irish is to become an attractive subject for students it needs to focus on teaching students the basic grammer of the language and it needs to focus on teaching relevant words used in modern life. Until this happens, Irish for me anyway, will remain a boring and irrelevant subject.

Today The Teachers Union of Ireland instructed its members not to teach classes that exceed a certain number of pupils. This could leave classes without teachers for certain overcrowded subjects.

An overcrowded class is defined as 30+ for a general class and 24+ for a practical class such as Music, Art or Woodwork.

The union has denied that classes would be left unattended saying that this would be “unprofessional and irresponsible” however their guidelines do essentially leave classes without a teacher.

Should a class be overcrowded the teacher must escort the pupils to a “safe place” (I thought all schools were safe?) where they can be supervised by a principal or deputy principal.

So what happens then? Does the teacher go back to the staff room and sip a cup of tea while the principal minds the class? Principals or Deputy Principals have a tough enough job running an entire school without having to deal with individual classes, that’s the job of frontline teachers.

The TUI has warned that it may take disciplinary action against teachers who disobey the instruction.

This evening on the news there was a report on the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance. There is a backlog of applicants this year meaning that payments may reach parents after their children and back in school, thus defeating the purpose of the scheme. Uniforms are very expensive costing hundreds of euro for most families.

I’ve a better solution to the cost of uniforms. Do away with uniforms altogether!

This would put hundreds of euro back into the pockets of families so they can reinvest the money into the important costs of education. Tutoring, books, grinds and stationary.