Address by Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairi Quinn TD, at the INTO Congress [DES - Press Release]
- Published: 25 April 2011
I want to start by thanking you for your invitation to join you at your annual congress today and for your warm welcome.
I’m delighted to be here.
I consider myself to have been given the job I wanted in what is, in effect, a National Government.
I am anxious to ensure that all of the education partners are in no doubt of the very difficult road that lies ahead.
In my opening remarks therefore I will set out the challenges we face as a country and what that means for the education sector.
My party respects the role of the trade union movement in this country.
I understand how an annual conference must discuss and debate the issues that matter to you, whether those are issues that concern you as individuals or issues that come from your concern for the primary school system generally.
In your classrooms you strive to teach children the truth.
I want to be equally frank about the resources that are likely to be available for education in the coming period.
I am not going to pretend that that the resources available for education can be improved, earlier decisions reversed or further difficult measures avoided.
The bottom line is that Ireland has to reduce its expenditure on public services and that means further difficult and painful decisions.
We must all come to terms with the extent to which our reliance on EU/IMF funding means that we operate without economic sovereignty.
The parties that have formed the new Government have done just that.
On the back of a historic election result Fine Gael could have sought to form a Government with the support of independents.
The easy road for the Labour Party would have been to take up the role of the largest opposition party for the first time in the history of the State.
Both parties instead chose to form a National Government precisely because the gravity of the situation demanded such a response.
The position is stark.
I have repeatedly made the point that the country is akin to being in receivership.
Ireland is unable to borrow in the markets the money that is needed to fund services and provide for capital programmes.
To put it bluntly, the money dispensed by ATMs to all public servants, including public representatives, to enable us engage in our daily activities and purchases comes from ECB monies provided to our banking system.
That money is made available to Ireland by the European Central Bank at fortnightly intervals.
Full Story: www.education.ie
