{"id":7596,"date":"2024-10-04T13:51:42","date_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:51:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/?p=7596"},"modified":"2024-10-04T13:51:42","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T12:51:42","slug":"latest-phone-pouch-revelations-add-new-levels-of-farce-to-budget-fallout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/ga\/latest-phone-pouch-revelations-add-new-levels-of-farce-to-budget-fallout\/","title":{"rendered":"Latest phone pouch revelations add new levels of farce to budget fallout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s revelations that private fee-paying schools will be allowed to apply for a slice of the \u20ac9 million budget allocation to purchase mobile phone pouches have added new levels of farce to the controversy, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon.<\/p>\n<p>Deputy Gannon, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on education, said:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpending \u20ac9 million in this manner at a time when many schools are facing a financial crisis is completely tone deaf to the real needs of principals, teachers, parents and pupils around the country.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis scandalous waste of money \u2013 when schools are struggling to pay their bills and services for children with disabilities are virtually non-existent \u2013 shows this Government is totally out of touch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that private fee-paying schools will also be eligible to apply for funding under this scheme has now added new levels of farce to this bizarre initiative.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven recent controversies over ridiculously expensive bike sheds, security huts and modular homes \u2013 not to mention the bottomless money pit that is the National Children\u2019s Hospital \u2013 there is zero public appetite for any further waste of taxpayers\u2019 cash.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut despite growing calls for a reversal of this decision, the Minister for Education has stubbornly refused to admit she was wrong. She urgently needs to reassess her priorities \u2013 and scrap this\u00a0scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>October 4, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today\u2019s revelations that private fee-paying schools will be allowed to apply for a slice of the \u20ac9 million budget allocation to purchase mobile phone pouches have added new levels of farce to the controversy, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. Deputy Gannon, who is the party\u2019s spokesperson on education, said: \u201cSpending \u20ac9 million in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4584,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[218,316,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-gary-gannon","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Latest phone pouch revelations add new levels of farce to budget fallout - Social Democrats<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.socialdemocrats.ie\/latest-phone-pouch-revelations-add-new-levels-of-farce-to-budget-fallout\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"ga_IE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Latest phone pouch revelations add new levels of farce to budget fallout - Social Democrats\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Today\u2019s revelations that private fee-paying schools will be allowed to apply for a slice of the \u20ac9 million budget allocation to purchase mobile phone pouches have added new levels of farce to the controversy, according to Social Democrats TD Gary Gannon. 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