From breakingnews.ie:

"Labour Youth has accused the Government and Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe of failing students in a number of areas.

The organisation says cuts in special-needs assistants, the lack of a centralised system for maintenance grants and the lack of job prospects due to the HSE recruitment ban will all affect students in some way.

However, it says the proposed reintroduction of third-level fees is causing the most amount of worry.

It says the planned return of fees undermines the Government's claims to be promoting a knowledge economy."

It is a great honour to have the opportunity to address you here on the occasion of the Tom Johnson Summer School

When I spoke at our equivalent gathering last year I stressed the importance that attached to the Labour Party setting out a clear vision for our policies, our values and our vision of Ireland. It is clear, following such successful local and European elections, that this work is underway and that the vision that has been set out has been found to be attractive to large sections of society. While the task, and the challenge, remain, much good work has been done.

The 5 June 2009 will be seen historically as an extremely significant day in the history of the Labour Party, and potentially, if the hard work is continued, as a turning point in Irish political history. To have elected three MEPs, 132 City and County Councillors and 84 Town Councillors is no mean feat and it is an achievement which reflects very well on the Labour Party as a whole. To have approximately 250 people elected to office across the country is a testament to talent, hard work, strong organisation, and it strengthens our hand in seeking to effect lasting change in Ireland.

To achieve that necessary and lasting change we have to be very clear as to what we regard as the minimum we will seek to do if elected to government and indeed what our minimum demands would be if elected in such numbers as would justify our participation in government. It is incumbent on us all to frame and state explicitly that which we regard as a baseline for our participation in government- what those things would be upon which we would insist, and enact, upon taking seats in government and in cabinet.

While those of us here may all share much of the same general view on this- that we will insist on a society where participation is based on citizenship and rights rather than on the wealth that one possesses, we must realise that such a view may require to be imposed on those who will have to be forced to accept it as the price of office.

On the matter of the greatest crisis facing Ireland and the world at the present time, a global economic slowdown which serves as context for our own government's home-grown speculative property bubble in Ireland, it is vital that we present coherently and cogently our alternative economic view, and make the case for it strongly. We must work to achieve no less than a shift in consciousness; we have to achieve a demystification of the economic sphere. We must all be able to speak with confidence of our alternative economic strategy and to seek support for it with confidence and commitment.

The present economic crisis in which we are immersed has, as perhaps its worst feature, a catastrophic rise in unemployment. The level of unemployment is set to pass a half a million. How we respond to this will reveal the differing political assumptions, the ideology, and the policies of the Left and the Right in Irish politics.

The basic thrust of the politics of the Right, in economic terms, is to give first priority to stabilising the banking system, even at the cost of a taxation impact on future generations. This is to be followed by a fiscal strategy that offers stability, even at the cost of cuts in vital public infrastructure, and cuts in wages that may be regressive in terms of net income and spending capacity.

Taken even on the basis of its own assumptions, this approach promises disaster. This sequencing of bank stability followed by a slash and burn fiscal strategy, which is demanded ahead of, or indeed as an alternative to, such a stimulus as would reflate the economy, will drive unemployment through the half million barrier at even a faster rate than at present. Furthermore, whatever short term yield comes from emergency taxation and cuts in capital programmes will be quickly absorbed by the cost of servicing the increases in unemployment. The shrinking of the economy through reductions in income and cuts in expend

Issued : Wednesday 8 April, 2009

Speaking this morning in reaction to the Supplementary Budget, Labour Youth Chairperson, Gary Honer said:

"The Budget presented to the Dáil yesterday by the Minister for Finance was an ill-thought out, ill-conceived and underhanded attack on the young and least well off in society.

"Cutting the job-seekers allowance to €100 for those under twenty is a reactionary step that will only strengthen the poverty trap facing at-risk young people. Equally, the failure to present any coherent solutions to address rising unemployment will disproportionately affect young people, and will sentence many young people to a life of poverty. Meanwhile, young people continue to face uncertainty around the prospect of the re-introduction of third-level fees.

"In addition to all of these, Santa Claus has been particularly hard-hit by Scrooge Lenihan's decision to take away the double Christmas social welfare payments, which will make it doubly difficult for him to visit every home in the country this Christmas.

"This Government had an opportunity to set things straight with the finances of the country. Unfortunately they didn't and once again the Irish people have been let down by an uncaring regime, more concerned with hitting the most vulnerable, than with ensuring a stable financial future for all citizens.

"Young people are going to be forced to pay for the failures of this Government for years to come."