Urban and Rural Ireland - A tale of two Irelands.

[Baron von Biffo]

Urban Ireland.

€380m is to be spent on building 40 new schools, the bulk of which are in the Dublin area.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...7-2806767.html

Rural Ireland.

€3.5m is to be slashed from the rural school transport scheme.

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...r-2807313.html

With a cabinet that's so overwhelmingly urban based we will probably see a lot more of this.

[Holly]

There are a lot more people in the cities than in rural areas and people continue to gravitate to conurbations. What a bizarre sense of fairness it would be were the government to build a school in a remote unpopulated countryside every time one was built in a city .... a bit like the racist South Africans boasting that every rand spend on white public schools was matched by a rand spent in the Bantustan schools despite a populations ratio of 1:14.

[bormotello]

Makes perfect sense
Country wont have money to subsidize depressed areas for long. All economical growth will happen in Dublin, because already most of investments and newly created position are happening within M50.
Employers need a big choice of potential candidates, workers more likely will settle where they will easily get a job. Labour cost is too expensive, especially for low qualified jobs. IDA has nothing to offer for foreign investors apart from low CT. Most of investments in Ireland are going into high-tech or R&D, where quality of workforce is more important then nice view from window or good relations with local gombeens establishment
Dublin will grow, everything else suffer.
When state will have enough money, it will be able to start subsidizing depressed areas again as it was before through decentralization and spreading bureaucracy around country

[Baron von Biffo]

Makes perfect sense
Country wont have money to subsidize depressed areas for long. All economical growth will happen in Dublin, because already most of investments and newly created position are happening within M50.
Employers need a big choice of potential candidates, workers more likely will settle where they will easily get a job. Labour cost is too expensive, especially for low qualified jobs. IDA has nothing to offer for foreign investors apart from low CT. Most of investments in Ireland are going into high-tech or R&D, where quality of workforce is more important then nice view from window or good relations with local gombeens establishment
Dublin will grow, everything else suffer.
When state will have enough money, it will be able to start subsidizing depressed areas again as it was before through decentralization and spreading bureaucracy around country

If you're not providing services outside the M50 then you shouldn't levy taxes there either.

[Holly]

If you're not providing services outside the M50 then you shouldn't levy taxes there either.

The parents of children in overcrowded city schools should not be subsidizing empty buildings in the middle of nowhere.

[Andrew49]

There are a lot more people in the cities than in rural areas and people continue to gravitate to conurbations. What a bizarre sense of fairness it would be were the government to build a school in a remote unpopulated countryside every time one was built in a city .... a bit like the racist South Africans boasting that every rand spend on white public schools was matched by a rand spent in the Bantustan schools despite a populations ratio of 1:14.

And there are more voters in urban areas .... and the biggest conurbation did turf out the Minister who's plan (rural school transport scheme) the present government is now implementing. One of the many obscene things the last Fianna Fail government did was to cut services and raise prices AKA highway robbery. Now this government is treading the same road. This government shouldn't underestimate the rural vote.

[bormotello]

If you're not providing services outside the M50 then you shouldn't levy taxes there either.

Then state shouldn't provide services at all

[Buddha]

St. Patrick's NS, Castlebar, seat of The High King of Ireland, My youngest grandson, who is in Senior Infants, will go into 1st.Class in September. There are two senior classes at the moment, however, come September, they will be "conjoined" as one 1st.Class. The two senior Infants and the two junior infants will also decrease by one.

Added to this we have a sizable population of Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and African children attending such a small school. They need special tuition obviously to learn the language.

So now classes have doubled and one of the best schools in Castlebar will lose three of its teachers, and I am only speaking of the infant teachers here now, there may be more to go in the Juniors.

We should be fighting the good fight for all our children. And all nationalities before the racist fools get on. Children are not responsible for where they are raised. They deserve the best, no matter what colour creed or culture they are.

[morticia]

We should be fighting the good fight for all our children. And all nationalities before the racist fools get on. Children are not responsible for where they are raised. They deserve the best, no matter what colour creed or culture they are.

I thoroughly agree. And in fairness to the OP, he wasn't suggesting we needed huge numbers of new rural schools etc, he was just saying that cutting the school bus system wasn't a great idea. I'd agree. Why not amalgamate some of the smaller ones and ensure everyone gets a lift to a bigger and better school via a decent taxi/bus service?

Having said that, Dublin really does need the extra schools.....there's war trying to get kids into primary at the moment and just wait until this generation of primary schoolers get to secondary and no-one can afford the fees for the private schools.

Serious bunfight about to begin, I'd guess.

We need to start prioritising kids, now. They are our future. I'd put them ahead of the health system in terms of spending priorities, myself.

[C. Flower]

St. Patrick's NS, Castlebar, seat of The High King of Ireland, My youngest grandson, who is in Senior Infants, will go into 1st.Class in September. There are two senior classes at the moment, however, come September, they will be "conjoined" as one 1st.Class. The two senior Infants and the two junior infants will also decrease by one.

Added to this we have a sizable population of Polish, Lithuanian, Latvian and African children attending such a small school. They need special tuition obviously to learn the language.

So now classes have doubled and one of the best schools in Castlebar will lose three of its teachers, and I am only speaking of the infant teachers here now, there may be more to go in the Juniors.

We should be fighting the good fight for all our children. And all nationalities before the racist fools get on. Children are not responsible for where they are raised. They deserve the best, no matter what colour creed or culture they are.

The plan, I'm quite sure, is to close a lot of rural schools and make parents pay the full cost of travel to the nearest town.

[jinnyjoe]

And there are more voters in urban areas .... and the biggest conurbation did turf out the Minister who's plan (rural school transport scheme) the present government is now implementing. One of the many obscene things the last Fianna Fail government did was to cut services and raise prices AKA highway robbery. Now this government is treading the same road. This government shouldn't underestimate the rural vote.

Andrew, I'm sorry to disagree, it's a simple maths exercise, lots and lots of houses built in commuter belt of Dublin between 2003 - 2008 now equals lots of children with no schools to facilitate them. Much as I would like to malign this government as I frequently do, I gotta agree on this one, even though I live in a rural area.

[Baron von Biffo]

The plan, I'm quite sure, is to close a lot of rural schools and make parents pay the full cost of travel to the nearest town.

That's what McCarthy proposed.

Levying another €3.5m from rural families while spending more than 100 times that amount for city kids is entirely unfair. It's also worth noting that Cannon doesn't seem to be suggesting a similar increase in the fares for school children on massively subsidised Dublin Bus services.

[Baron von Biffo]

Andrew, I'm sorry to disagree, it's a simple maths exercise, lots and lots of houses built in commuter belt of Dublin between 2003 - 2008 now equals lots of children with no schools to facilitate them. Much as I would like to malign this government as I frequently do, I gotta agree on this one, even though I live in a rural area.

Building fewer, larger schools to serve cities would not impose the same inconvenience on families as doing the same in rural areas. Money saved by having city kids travel 2 miles instead of 1 to school could be used to avoid hiking up charges for rural families.

[Baron von Biffo]

This could be the issue that FF builds its recovery on.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland...ow-159377.html

With the Dublin cabinet entirely out of touch with the rest of the country there's a lot of scope for Martin to capitalise on the resentment of rural dwellers who are being targeted for most of the pain.

[Yojimbo]

The growth in population (now rapidly going into reverse of course) is mainly in urban and suburban areas. Most rural schools have static numbers of students, while many urban ones are bursting at the seams. And of course, provision in urban areas is far more cost effective.

The reality is that rural areas are subject to massive hidden subsidies - it costs so much more to provide schools, hospitals, roads, etc., to a scattered rural population than an urban one. We are paying big time for our failures over the years to focus growth in high capacity areas. The notion that this is a political decision is simply wrong - rural areas have a strongly disproportionate influence in government, this has always been the case.