Press Release On Behalf Of NPCpp on Foot of the Pre- budget Deliverance
07/12/2025

Press Release On Behalf Of NPCpp on Foot of the Pre- budget Deliverance

Having watched today's" pre-budget" deliverance by Minister Brendan Howlin, we at NPCpp are once again dismayed and disappointed in the proposed cuts and increases to education .

"Total target savings of 700 teaching posts; Target savings purely for financial reasons is a short-term solution to a long- term problem .It is short-sighted and negative in the long term.

Guidance posts at post-primary level will no longer be allocated to any post primary school on an ex-quota basis".  The post of a guidance counsellor in the school setting is perhaps the only professional one available to the majority of our students. The benefit of a good, fully qualified guidance teacher cannot be underestimated, this is borne out every August when NPCpp host the annual Leaving Cert Helpline and see these professionals at work. At a time when choices are difficult to make for lots of reasons such as financial and career prospects, along with the fact that  jobs are nonexistent; our young people need their guidance counsellor now more than ever.
Lessons should be learned from other areas of education, where people teaching subjects that they are not qualified in has resulted in a drop in standards.

How can schools take on the Leaving Cert Applied and roll it out in their schools when "they are currently to get no additional teacher resource."

On the changes to third level, the increase to the registration fee coupled with a 3% cut in the grant will once again disenfranchise the most vulnerable in our society as well as middle income families, who are losing more of their take home pay in levies etc, in addition to other increased costs. This may result in a lot of current and future 3rd level students not been in a position to attend college. The fact that no seal or cap has been proposed is of great concern. Where will it stop? The prospect for the Leaving Certificate Class of 2012 is now a gaping chasm. No grants will most certainly mean no college for many students. No students in our colleges will eventually mean less choices and invariably job losses at third level.

At no point can I see in Minister Howlin's "revelation today, is there a job creation proposal. The future for our young people is indeed bleak to say the very least and the emigration route seems inevitable for a large proportion of our young people, they will be taking the future of our country with them

 These are just a few of the outstanding issues so far and one can only hope that there are no more possibilities for the further decimation of our youth and future.

END

Jackie OCallaghan
Pro NPCpp
087 7887363

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