An interview with Cllr. Declan Breathnach (FF)

TOM LAWLOR, Political Correspondent,
On a cold Tuesday morning, on February fifteenth, Editor Andrew McKeown and I paid a visit to the office of Louth County Councillor and Fíanna Fáil T.D. candidate for North Louth, Declan Breathnach.

Councillor Breathnach was very busy with his election campaign, but managed to fit us in for a 10 minute interview. As the parties are in full swing election mode, we opened with the question of why young people should vote for Fíanna Fáil, rather than the opposition parties. He cited the current condition of Dundalk town, and the surrounding area, "My view on that whole issue is that all you have to do is look around you, in this town of Dundalk and indeed this county. Wise investment has been made..." Citing the €38,000,000 extension to the P.J. Carroll building and referring to the infrastructure across the county as a "testament to Fíanna Fáil."

He did, however, allow that "People will always focus on the issues of discontent, and they are right to discontented at this minute in time," but re-affirming that Fíanna Fáil had "...stood this country, and indeed this region (Louth) in good stead in terms of investment in infrastructure and in terms of job creation," taking the opportunity to mention the Mullharlin Business Park, and the recent announcement that they have outlined planning permission for two advanced biocpharmacist factories, thanks to the marketing of the I.D.A. (Industrial Development Agency).

He believes that Flanna Fáil have set up this region to blossom in the post economic uncertainty, despite the hindrance of the banking crisis, which he admits "Certainly Fíanna Fáil have to take the blame for taking their eye off the regulator and taking their eye off the banks, but throughout all of that, I think wise investment has been made..." "....taking their eye off the banks" is probably nothing close to how other parties would describe Fíanna Fáil's handling of the banks, but Councillor Breathnach is very adamant in his view of Louth's post-recession prosperity. Many of the people of this county might disagree with Cllr. Breathnach and there are those amongst the public who believe that Fíanna Fáil have crippled the national and local economy.

Continuing this line of questioning, editor Andrew McKeown asked, "What would you do to improve the lives of Young People, if elected." Councillor Breathnach proclaimed himself a strong advocate for young people, and he says he is of the opinion that young people have a lot more to offer. "I believe that that mix of the wise head and the young head, has a lot to offer." He is a strong advocate of things like T.Y., believing that young people need to take a bigger role in community organisations, like sport, charity and even Tidy Towns.
He thinks that education system also needs to change to allow the under rated skills of young people to flourish, saying that he has often argued at County Developement board and County Enterprise board level that we are losing the skilled mix of our youth in the education system, in terms of multimedia, computing and musical capability. He gave us an example of how he believes this issue could be addressed in this region, thinking that the new multimedia facilities in the DKIT should be available to secondary school students. "You people are the employers of the future," carefully adding, "and I'm not faulting the education system in saying that, but I do feel you need a greater output to exercise those skills" 

As we knew that Cllr. Breathnach had been involved in Education for 32 years, this seemed like an appropriate time to branch into questions on the education sector. We questioned him on the Croake Park agreement, on the size of redundancies. His first point was on the Special Needs Assistants (S.N.A's). He was of the opinion that "too many S.N.A's were employed in the good times, and that has become unsustainable in the current economic downturn.”

 The INTO has said primary teachers were extremely concerned at reductions in SNA levels in primary schools. The union said the inclusion of special needs children in schools requires adequate staffing to meet both the educational and the care needs of these children. Sheila Nunan, general secretary of the INTO said cutbacks in care staff will affect the education of all children in mainstream classes and have the potential to limit the ability of schools to integrate special needs children in schools.  And with average primary school class sizes in Ireland being 24 (closer to 30 when you factor in the fact that resource teachers are included, despite not taking full classes) compared to 20 in Europe, we are inclined to agree that special needs students could fall through the cracks in the larger classes.

Cllr. Breathnach told us that the leader of his party, Mícheál Martin, had stated that Education was a sector that would not receive any further cuts, which Cllr. Breathnach welcomed. A view shared no doubt, by the INTO, although a statement met with scepticism by a union who feel, undoubtably alienated. He believes that "we should try to minimise any further impact, but I think it's recognised that we al have to take pain, including those in the education sector."

When put with a question of the perceived disproportionate pay cuts with regards to teachers and civil servants as opposed to cabinet ministers, Cllr. Breathnach told us that we were talking about "different salary scales" and said that "it is recognised that ministers have taken a fairly large percentage cut in their wages like teachers and everybody else." An arguement we are sure the general public may not be too eager to totally agree with. He also told us that there is a "promise of reform of the Dáil system" and that he "wouldn't have a problem with further cuts in ministerial salaries", adding "I do think that the Dail has overpaid itself."
Later we pushed on, inquiring about the cap being placed on the pay of new teachers, with a possibility of new teachers being asked to work unpaid, indefinitely, and what he thought of the bad economics of investing in the education of these new teachers, and possibly losing them as an asset when they turn to emigration. Cllr. Breathnach answered "It is unfortunate, but the reality is, if you look at teachers pay in this country relative to our near neighbours in England, teachers start on a very high rung of the ladder here. The minister for finance and the government have to take difficult decisions.... but the reality is we have to cut the cloth to suit the measure." A hard line. One which some people would not be inclined to agree with, feeling that the 'cloth' is not being cut equally on all sides. He lightened the situation by suggesting that trainee teachers could complete there qualifications by community employment schemes with Fás.