Labour will deliver the smallest class sizes in the history of the State

Standing up for working families’ campaign launch:

Speaking at the launch of the Labour Party ‘Standing Up For Working Families’ campaign this afternoon, Labour TD John Lyons outlined Labour’s achievements in education over the last five years, and unveiled an ambitious plan to deliver the smallest class sizes in the history of the state.

“Labour in Government has ensured that all teachers working in our schools are qualified. We have reduced the rental bill for prefabs in schools by 40pc and provided high-speed broadband free of charge to every second-level school.

“We delivered the first improvements to literacy and numeracy results for a generation, reformed the Junior Cert to give all of our students the skills they need for the modern world, and introduced new subjects like coding, philosophy and Chinese.

“The Labour Party is determined to continue standing up for working families through greater investment in the public services which they depend on.

“Since her appointment as Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan has made clear that her top priority is to deliver smaller class sizes. In the last Budget, she delivered on that promise, and reduced class sizes in primary schools back to their smallest ever level.

“Labour will continue to cut class sizes to an historic low, reaching an average class size of 20 (equivalent to the EU average), and putting an end to any classes with over 30 pupils.

“Labour in Government has reduced by 40pc the amount spent on renting prefabs in schools. We have provided €2.2bn for new school buildings in every county across Ireland. And we have funded small devolved projects to protect the quality of our school buildings.

“We will end the use of prefabs in our schools by 2021, and make sure that every child in school is safe and warm.”