SF backs VTOS cuts protest

Sinn Féin Dáil spokesperson on Education, Seán Crowe, attended a demonstration against the proposed cuts in childcare support for VTOS schemes organised by the Dublin City PP branch of the Teachers Union of Ireland outside the Department of Education, Marlborough Street on Wednesday afternoon.

"Hundreds of men and women across the country who had struggled to make ends meet in order to take up these VTOS courses were betrayed in the most arbitrary and cruel fashion by the government's announcement, a week from the beginning of classes, that they were withdrawing childcare support," said Crowe.

"These are people who were motivated enough and determined enough to build a future for their children by re-entering education. They should be applauded and supported, not abandoned. I have written to the Minister for Education and Science asking him how the decision to cut VTOS childcare support, depriving working class people of access to education compares, with his empty rhetoric when he called for the reintroduction of fees to enable working class people to go to third level."