Michael KellyGovernment failings, ‘a damning indictment on the state of our Republic’, writes Michael Kelly
Backbench Government TDs hailed last month’s budget as a sign that the country had turned the corner. That is unless you’re living in one of the most socially deprived communities in the country.
It was with a mixture of sadness and dismay that I heard this week the heartfelt plea from Co. Limerick Parish Priest Fr Tony O’Riordan for parishes to sell unused and unwanted sacred vessels in a bid to keep a teacher employed at a cash-starved primary school in Moyross.
The school is in the heart of Labour education minister Jan O’Sullivan’s constituency. Moyross is one of the most challenging communities in the country. The area has been blighted by criminality and decades of neglect by successive governments and policymakers. Yet, the Department of Education & Skills in post-bailout Ireland has cut a teacher from the local school in the frontline of reaching out to the most vulnerable children in the country.
As we approach the centenary of the 1916 Easter Rising, it’s a damning indictment on the state of our Republic. The lofty ideal of the framers of the proclamation of the Republic to “cherish all the children of the nation equally” lies in tatters for the people of Moyross, and farther afield.
Referendum
It’s stunning that a Government that only two years ago ran an expensive referendum on children’s rights with posters that confidently asserted ‘Every child matters’ slashes funding for vulnerable children without any sense of irony.
What kind of country are we building? Do we want an Ireland where the country and economy serves the people or are we intent on recreating the insane economic model that sees citizens as mere functionaries serving the idol of the ‘small open economy’.
Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was roundly criticised for her 1980s claim that “there is no such thing as society”.
Her appalling sentiments would evidently find a resonance among some Irish politicians at the moment who can slash funding for a school in Moyross while travelling abroad to trumpet Ireland’s economic recovery.
So, the question becomes: what kind of recovery are we building?
What kind of regeneration are we offering to vulnerable and challenging communities in some of the most socially deprived areas of the country?
The Celtic Tiger economy brought unprecedented prosperity to Ireland: it’s true that a phenomenal number of people benefited from this prosperity. But, communities like Moyross saw none of this prosperity – their only exposure to boom-time Ireland was to witness the criminality that middle-class Ireland’s addiction to cocaine unleashed upon helpless communities as the wealthy sought help to feed their habit.
Shame
It’s not very often that I’m ashamed of my country: but when I hear a hardworking parish priest on the radio pleading with parishes to help him raise funds to provide a decent education for vulnerable children, it’s hard not to feel rotten about the way we’re letting people down.
Education is a right, and rights come not as a gift from the State, but from the hand of God. Educational achievement is a route to freedom and advancement, it should not be seen as a privilege.
The sad fact is, many people and communities in this country – let’s call them the outsiders – have become all-too-accustomed to being let down by the insiders, the ruling elite.