Kildare has now got the Ministers Attention – Daly

Following the Minister for Education’s response in the national media to an advertising campaign on the lack of school accommodation and facilities in the county, Fine Gael candidate Cllr Richard Daly has said that he is committed to any campaign which can improve the plight of student, parents and teachers in what is becoming an education “black spot” in the country

“The fact that the Minister can “light heartedly” refer to what is a most serious situation in South Kildare shows how little of a grasp she has on the situation. Does she not realise that the public INTO meeting in Newbridge was less than pleased with the staffing of schools in the county?. Has she no understanding of the parents who had places in primary school deferred last year and the many other who will have to accept prefabricated classrooms on a second level car park because the Department of Education did not respond to the warning signs six years ago! Does she not remember the Taoiseach planting a tree at the site of the new Community College in Athy in 2000 and promising speedy delivery of this project?

It is not the Minister who should be taking personal umbrage at the failure of educational delivery it is the students, the parents, the teachers and the communities who are starved of deserved resources.

I even wonder how many of the party faithful who paid €1000 a table at the fundraiser appreciated Minister Hanafin “light – hearted” reference to their own constituency’s lack of education facilities. Minister Hanafin would have served them better by announcing some new building rather than jocosely alluding to the lack of them.

I, personally, would not even be involved in politics today but for the lack of delivery by the Department of Education and Science which has not yet laid a block eight years after the sanction of the school which I work in. It is I, and the parents and pupils of this and other schools who should be comparing the advertised product with the reality.

Overcrowded classrooms, thousands of students still being taught in prefabs, unbuilt schools and shrinking resources are among the hallmarks of this government which flamboyantly spent on PPARS and e-Voting machines.

I passionately believe in prioritising education in this county and I’m afraid Minister, I don’t get the joke.”

ENDS