The Taoiseach defended the Government's record on education as he came under pressure on its U-turn in its commitment to reduce class sizes.
"While we did not do exactly what was in the programme for government, I am not going to say it was not a right decision to put in resource teachers, special-needs teachers as against that," said Mr Ahern yesterday. "It is the right thing to do rather than slavishly following a figure."
The Taoiseach was responding to the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, who referred to the weekend disclosure by the Minister for Education, Ms Hanafin, on TV3 that it might not be possible to meet the Government's commitment on class size. Mr Kenny accused Mr Ahern of "going back to your ethics in government; get in here and stay in here at all costs".
The situation in special education, he said, was that the Department was advising principals not to make contact by telephone about any problems. "Do you understand that there are 6,000 assessments in the Department of Education untouched?"
He asked if the Taoiseach had spoken to any of the parents of special-needs children.
"Do you understand the frustration that these people feel when they see that the Minister for Education, and you as Taoiseach, have broken a contract and have been telling the people lies? That is the way they feel about it."
When the Ceann Comhairle, Dr Rory O'Hanlon, intervened to say that the word "lies" was not appropriate, Mr Kenny said that it was the word used by thousands of people because the Government could not be believed.
"In this matter of education, which is central to our entire society, this Government and this Minister calmly announced that another broken contract, another broken promise, is merely a 'noble aspiration'. You should be ashamed of yourselves."
Outlining various initiatives on education, Mr Ahern said: "We have had 4,000 additional teachers at primary level, an extra 2,337 teachers at post-primary level, and the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level has been reduced to just over 17 to 1. Teacher-training places have increased by 30 per cent, and the actual pupil-ratio for second-level has also been reduced."
He added that enormous resources had been provided for children with disabilities.
When Mr Ahern remarked that he understood there were people who wanted to look after the better-off, the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, remarked: "You should understand it, Taoiseach. They are very close to you."
Earlier Mr Kenny said that the commitment was firmly made in the programme for government.
"What do you have to say, Taoiseach, to the parents of the 110,000 children in class sizes of 30 or more today, to the 250,000 children and their parents in class sizes of between 20 and 30?"
Mr Ahern said it was an awful pity the government of which Mr Kenny was a member did not put more people into teacher-training colleges when it had an opportunity. There were fewer than 500, and now there were 1,280 coming through the system.
