Education & Housing
Education
- Invest €1 billion in additional current and capital funding for education for the first year of the next Government’s term of office, to front-load educational priorities.
- Review of teacher training and continuous professional development.
- Ensure that student- teacher ratios do not exceed 15:1 at primary and secondary levels.
- Enactment of the EPSEN Act for special needs pupils.
- Examine the needs of education in Irish speaking areas, including the possibility of establishing a specific Education Board to deal with such matters.
- Abolish the registration fee for third level education. No 3rd Level Fees: We have a world renowned standard of education in Ireland. Students from all walks of life come here not only to study their subject, but also to improve their English and to absorb the Irish culture. We would build on our reputation by developing and encouraging a world class Education system for International and European students, and by enticing European students with a no-fees policy. The knock-on effect of this would be a huge boost to our economy, services and rental property market.
- We would support options of alternative Senior Cycle programmes at Secondary School level, including Leaving Certificate Applied, Leaving Certificate Vocational Programme and the addition of FETAC Module options, Levels 1-5 inclusive, with Certification of individual modules achieved.
Housing
- With the absolute over abundance of property on the market all building permission on green field sights will be forbidden until these properties have at least been examined for the purpose of social housing.
- With over three hundred thousand dwellings unoccupied in the state this can provide and ensure the delivery of 30,000 social and affordable housing units a year until the housing waiting lists are cleared.
- Housing schemes should incorporate a mixture of private and public development.