Yawn Blah Blah Mrs Gilmore has a past!

A few weeks ago I blogged on how the right wing Irish media was tut tuting about Eamon Gilmore’s past political life. A fortnight on from being portrayed as a fellower traveller of Official Sinn Fein in the 70’s he’s now being effectively compared to the Dunner!

Its going to get a lot tougher as the Indo group dredge the barrel on Eamon Gilmore’s personal life. Those on the inside track won’t give up easily. Today the shock horror is that Eamon’s wife had the cheek to sell land that was left to her by her mother at the request of the Board of Management of the local school where she grew up in rural Galway to provide a site for a new school building over 4 years ago. Eamon’s wife had no intention of utilising the land and she received €525,000, paid her tax after the land was independently valuated and a price agreed.
Eamon had no role in the matter but hey! Don’t let the facts get in the way of a good story! A woman with her own money? Surely that can't be alowed?

The Dunner on the other hand who regularly is highlighted by the Sunday Independent as an icon of how modern Ireland does things different. He asks his spouse to pick a number between 0 and their house number and then adds that to the €200M baseline he’d agreed with an agent. No need to bother about valuation or where the money is coming from. Sure Ireland will pick up the slack on that one.

So lets look at the “story”. Was the price per acre at the time in line with the market price for such land? Could the site have realised more if it had been sold off for one off housing sites and zoned at low density? The answer to both questions is Yes! Has Eamon Gilmore benefited from the transaction? Is there a suggestion of anything untoward? The answer to both questions is No!

What the implication is, is that Eamon Gilmore’s wife should not have sold the land because of who her husband was or if she did she should have sold it for next to nothing because of her husband’s politics. It’s unlikely that she was going to return to farm the land.
Fionan Sheehan accused Eamon Gilmore of a double standard comparing him to a developer on Tonight with Vincent Browne. Is the sale of 2 acres of land for a school the same thing as speculating on the price of land and regulating its supply to the market in order to drive prices upward? Because that’s what Sheehan effectively compared the sale to?
While I’m at it, if Fionan suggests that Eamon Gilmore should take responsiblity for his wife’s affairs, shouldn’t Fionan at least admit on air that his own spouse is a FF ministerial advisor and a defeated FF local election candidate?

The facts of the matter are that Kilimor National School was in need of replacement for many a long year. You’d be along time waiting to speculate on a site in Kilimor before the Sean Dunne’s of this world would roll into town with a Section 23 in their back pocket to kick start the construction sector even though it at least had more infrastructure such as schools than some of locations where all that’s left are ghost. A month ago the FG golf story was an attempt to undermine Enda Kenny and that one didn’t work either although some in FG rose to it because it suited their agenda to undermine their leader. For what its worth I believe Kenny is a decent and straight man and so too is Gilmore.

Eamon Gilmore is being worked over because he’s opposing the present consensus between government, bankers, developers and media. Believe me they’ll be back when this stunt doesn’t work.

PreFFabs sprout in the south east!

This week’s Wexford People carries an indictment of any Government TD who met any school board of management and reassured them that their school construction plan would be prioritised. €900K is spent each year in Co Wexford alone on renting prefabs by FF & the Greens. In my time I’ve spoken at meetings and indeed had to listen to the steady line of spin from FF TD’s with their spin carefully honed by the Department. In the past I’ve heard how construction was halted by everything from Foot and Mouth to 9/11. Needless to say the excuse has changed but the effect on school communities is still the same, more delays.

7 years ago, I served on the BOM of my children’s school. Then we were cynically set up during an election campaign by Fianna Fail and then discarded after the election. This leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. I well understand how any parent or teacher feels about prefabs. Lets look at the Wexford Town figures; 3 schools, CBS secondary, Kennedy Park & Scoil Mhuire all have prefabs that set the taxpayer back over €100K per annum. In the surrounding parishes Barntown, Piercestown, Screen, Castlebridge and Crossabeg the prefabs there cost even more; over €110K! about 2 years ago an FOI request from me to the department revealed that rather than planning to get rid of prefabs FF and the Greens were planning to hold on to them as they compiled a database of prefabs in Ireland’s schools
One local principal says she wants a building not a prefab and is livid at the revelation that so much is being spent on prefabs. Its my view that the figures revealed are only the tip of the ice berg as it doesn’t include the cost of heating such energy inefficient buildings, cost of planning permission applications, construction of these glorified hen houses nor the cost of prefabs that were purchased by schools. It only applies to rental! The pictures on this page are all taken around the county at different primary schools, some are on the list published by the department, some are not.
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As Co Wexford TLC chairperson I worked with the INTO in the county on this issue. TLC was set up to campaign on the issue of school building. I found INTO on the ground in Wexford very effective at raising issue concerning the basic working conditions of teachers. This experience coloured my view of teaching colleagues and I strongly feel we’ve more that unites us than divides us.An in depth survey of all 100 schools in the county was taken and the results were shocking. Many of the schools on that list made no progress towards construction whatsoever. Kennedy Park, New Ross CBS and my own, where at second level we were promised a gym and associated classrooms along with the Asperger’s unit. The unit arrived courtesy of a fine prefab and no prizes for guessing that nothing else happened! If another survey was conducted now I believe that the result would be broadly the same. What’s more any incoming government will have their work cut out trying to tackle the backlog in school buildings even if the forecast is that we need 100,000 extra school spaces by 2020. .
I wonder about the capacity of the building industry to build that many schools but never doubt the capacity of FF or Green public reps to talk up their inertia and to pull the wool over the eyes of school communities

Time for cuts in education

This is one cut I’m proud of! Wexford’s newest school opened today. That’s me cutting the ribbon along with the pupils. Educate Together officially opened their primary school at Summerhill today. It was a great day for all concerned. I was delighted to be asked to do the honours and cut the ribbon. It’s been a rapid rise for the school from drawing board to reality but last September saw the school open. The school now has 15 pupils and 2 teachers and numbers will rise further next September. The school provides a new option for parents in Wexford in terms of patron, ethos, mix of sexes and provides a non-denominational school to the town for the first time. At a time when much of the news is negative it makes days like today more important. The reality is that future citizens of our town will be shaped by this school. It’s a sign of the diversity and recognition that the type of homogenous society that Ireland once was is now no more.

The Chairperson of the Board of Management Catriona Staunton had a vision of opening a school based on equity, democracy and one that would be child centred. I’ve met her bag packing, leafleting and lobbying in aid of her aspiration and you cannot be anything but enthused by her energy. The school is located in the former School of Music. This is a beautiful building with gorgeous plasterwork, fireplaces and really high ceilings. The Principal Maria and her teacher had put a huge amount of work into the opening day. All the pupils were excited at the prospect of the adults being in school, The highlight was when they sang Satchmo’s “Wonderful World” and “Sé mo Laoch mo ghile mhear” on the steps of the school.
Amy Hyland put today’s opening in the present context when she said that Educate Together didn’t visualise any further school openings this year. Other patrons such as the churches have said that they are happy to transfer patronage of some schools to other patron bodies if that is what parents wish. Clearly it’s change is coming in the area of schools in our country and I’m pleased Wexford will benefit from this change.
Unfortunately positive images like today’s get quickly forgotten in the media. I hope this school prospers and grows. May cuts like today’s live long in the memory of the school community

Class size, time to turn the tide

Yesterday was a red letter day for our youngest. She set off for her first time to Gaelscoil Charman, Wexford. Its our nearest co-ed primary and we’re really delighted how well our children have progressed at the school. The principal, teachers, staff, parents, pupils and wider community have a forged a unique bond down through the years of mutual support cast from a resolute campaign to have the school built in the first place.

Watching its construction 4 years ago rightly gave us a huge sense of achievement. Watching Sean Óg Ó hAilpín open the school gave pupils a sign that only the best would be provided into the future.

Within months however, a letter came home in the bag from the INTO school steward. Class sizes, something you cannot see from the road, were significantly up in the county and despite the government’s commitment to provide more teachers nationally the PTR was rocketing. Because Co Wexford’s population is increasing this puts great pressure on our schools. When Mary Hanafin became minister 4 years ago she dismissed her 2002 election commitment to reduce the PTR as a “noble aspiration”. The INTO organised a public meeting in Wexford in March 2007 to discuss the matter. Another promise from the government has come and gone and still the PTR remains high while Brian Cowen who was supposed to provide the money is now concentrating on bringing down is golf handicap.

Each Autumn the Department of Education release average class sizes based on returns from the previous school year. Co Wexford always features at the high end of this survey. The highest class size in a rural county in Ireland is usually in Wexford, In the past its been 41, 40 or 39. Last year, even Mary Hanafin was embarrassed. When Ruairi Quinn asked for the information it was withheld until Spring. She delayed the release of the results

A year ago Fianna Fail, The Greens & PD’s promised to reduce the PTR to 27 pupils per teacher. Yesterday my daughter was one of 29 pupils in a classroom. In this school year it is supposed to drop to 26. Nobody believes it will. What parents do believe is that teachers are struggling to cope in some schools. At Crossabeg near Wexford a school designed for 6 teachers was supposed to have opened its extension today. However, not a sod has been turned. Numbers have rocketed; teachers and classes work in cramped conditions. No rooms to teach in and no extra teachers to reduce the numbers in a classroom. 5 years ago FF built a pony palace at Punchestown instead of schools. Now the same government is opening golf clubs when they should be employing teachers.
That’s why INTO is organising a campaign in October on the issue of class sizes. I support the campaign of my fellow teachers. The Labour Party is also launching its own campaign to coincide with the union's campaign. Ruairi Quinn found out that over 40,000 pupils are still educated in drafty prefabs, 400 schools nationally are going nowhere on the building list. The time has come to make this government to put its money where its mouth is. The time has come for Labour's voice to be heard.