35 Gaelscoileanna aided since 1993

LAST Thursday Uinsionn Mac Dubhghaill used a highly flavoured account of the Gaelscoileanna controversy to suggest that I am a begrudger in relation to all the issues of parental involvement and choice, band indeed that I had more or less broken every commitment I ever made.

To be fair, your readers should be shown the wider picture. But first, let's deal with some basic facts about Gaelscoileanna for which your readers would be waiting a long time from Mr Mac Dubhghaill.

In the first 30 years of our State, there were four Gaelscoileanna in operation. From 1952 to 1980, a time of increasing awareness of the importance of heritage and language, approximately 15 more schools were recognised about one every two years.

The Gaelscoileanna movement could be said to have taken off during the 1980s. The Garret FitzGerald/Dick Spring government of 1983-87 recognised 23 new Gaelscoileanna, an average of about six a year.

Fianna Fail in government recognised 16 new Gaelscoileanna, an average of four a year. Its successor the Fianna Fail/PD Government from September 1991 until that government left office recognised none.

Since I became Minister, in January 1993, a total of 35 Gaelscoileanna have been recognised. That's more than any other previous minister has done. At a modest count, one new Gaelscoil has been recognised on average for every six weeks I have been Minister.

I fail to see how that can be characterised as begrudgery, or hostility to the concept of a living thriving language. I further fail to see how any objective reporter or expert could fail to know it, or take it into account.

Let's bear something else in mind Every time a Gaelscoil is recognised, that means 100 per cent grants for school sites and buildings: pupil capitation grants of £65, a better pupil/teacher ratio, and a special allowance for teachers.

Apart from disadvantaged areas, all other primary schools (including multi denominational) have to provide their own sites, contribute 15 per cent towards the building cost, and receive capitation of £45 per pupil.

One other fact: in the last four years, I have directed more than £11 million in capital funding for the construction of new Gaelscoileanna. I don't begrudge this spending - in fact, I fully support it. My ambition is ultimately to be in a position to provide all primary schools with the same or similar levels of support.

Unlike Mr Mac Dubhghaill, I was elected to be accountable to the wider community. I am responsible for ensuring that when new schools are recognised, they have a reasonable prospect of viability.

I am also responsible for ensuring that new schools do not unreasonably threaten the viability of existing neighbourhood schools; to which parents, teachers and the State through the taxpayers have already committed resources. I have to balance those requirements and cannot pursue a sectional agenda at the expense of other parents and pupils.

The fall in pupil numbers at primary level is an opportunity, not a threat, says Mr Mac Dubhghaill.

And he's absolutely right about that. And that is why I have set up the Commission on School Accommodation Needs so that all the partners in education can plan school provisions for the future.

But the Department of Education now in the business of closing schools down, he says, with long term sectarian effects. And all based on our (or my) begrudgery.

Is that so? Then why have I fought so hard to save 1,000 teaching posts that would have been pupil numbers? Why have I fought to allocate some of those posts to protect the viability of small and threatened rural schools? Why have I sought to use those posts to make every school a better place for teachers and students through reduced class sizes?

Why have I tried to allocate even more to areas of disadvantage, to bring pupil/teacher ratios down to their lowest level ever? Why have I more than doubled the capitation rates, to make every school easier to run on a daily basis? Why have I allocated nearly 500 remedial and career guidance posts?

Why are there now 1,800 children in pre schools, helping to break through a cycle of disadvantage and neglect? Why have I more than doubled, the numbers in adult and continuing education? And why have I made it possible for every family in Ireland to consider - in some cases for the first time in their family's history - the possibility of third level education, without the psychological and very real barrier of thousands of pounds in fees?

And why have I sought to encouraging people to go to college at night, by introducing a tax relief for those who are studying and holding down a job as well? Could it really all the begrudgery? Or could it just be that your columnist is so, blinded by prejudice that he can't see what's happening all around him?