Labour is standing up for education

Speaking at the Labour Party’s public meeting in the Croke Park Hotel, Dublin 3, this evening on Standing Up for Education, Deputy Joe Costello stated: “Education is lifelong, from the cradle to the grave.  It enables each person to grow to their full potential and live independent lives beholden to no one.

“The Labour Party places people and ideas at the heart of our policies.  For us, education is always a core value.  We always invest heavily in curriculum development, in staff, students and buildings.

“Over the last five years, during the worst recession in the history of the state, we protected class sizes and we have provided for two free pre-school years.

“We have engaged in a massive €2.2 billion programme of school building, and we have replaced more than half of the wasteful and unsatisfactory prefabs with new attractive schools.

“In my own constituency of Dublin Central, there has been a huge explosion of school building, ranging from the wonderful new third-level campus of the DIT in Grangegorman to the last gasp approval yesterday of the new Gaelscoil Bharra, replacing the 20 year-old dilapidated prefab Gaelscoil in Cabra.

“In the forthcoming manifesto for the General Election, we will build on these measures and create the policies for improving the quality of education.”