Green Party TD Paul Gogarty has accused Tanaiste Mary Harney of presiding over a major jobs gaffe following her support for the relocation of 130 Prison Service jobs from Clondalkin to Longford - even though just one employee originally comes from the Longford area.

The Headquarters of the Irish Prison Service are to be relocated from Clondalkin to Longford town, despite being at its current location on Monastery Road for just two years. Deputy Gogarty has strongly criticised the Tanaiste Mary Harney for welcoming the removal of the 130 jobs from her constituency under the so-called decentralisation programme.

"I raised this matter three times in the Dáil over the last two days. This is parish pump politics of the lowest order. The Tanaiste obviously seems to think her high profile will deflect any criticism and allow the likes of Tom Parlon and May Sexton to claim the credit for delivering jobs down the country.

"The decentralisation programme is absolute madness for three reasons. Firstly it is just an excuse to deflect from a bad budget. Secondly the areas chosen bear little resemblance to the national spatial strategy. Most importantly, it is not decentralisation in any real sense of the word; it is simply the relocation of a centralised office in Dublin to a centralised office elsewhere," stated Gogarty.

Deputy Gogarty called on the Tanaiste to act now to ensure that illogical and disruptive relocations such as the move from their constituency town of Clondalkin to Longford were scrapped. He also invited the local Fianna Fail TD, John Curran, to make a statement on the matter.

Green Party Education Spokesperson Paul Gogarty has welcomed the publication of the 2004 school building programme, which is the biggest in the history of the State. However he has described the funding available for 2004 and beyond in the multi-annual programme as "insufficient".

"The Minister must be paid his credit for progressing the chaotic situation. However we are talking about footsteps here, not the giant leaps that are needed to catch up on years of neglect. There are schools that should be included in this programme, but aren't, due to lack of resources. This does not bode well for the education of many pupils in the coming years," stated Gogarty.

The Green Party Deputy called for more investment over shorter period to clear the backlog of schools which are in severe disrepair or new schools which are yet to be cleared for building. The Party has called for a 2.5 million euro investment over a four year period.

On a personal note, Deputy Gogarty welcomed the decision to fast track a new school at Griffeen Valley Educate Together in Lucan. He described this as a "huge vindication for the Lucan Schools Crisis Campaign (see www.lucanschoolscrisis.com).

Green Party Education spokesperson Paul Gogarty has accused the Department of Education and the National Educational PsychologicalService of compromising psychologists' professional standing by issuing guidelines that affect their ability to make independent decisions.

Speaking at the Education and Science Committee, Gogarty asked officials from NEPS whether psychologists were being forced to 'prostitute' their

"NEPS psychologists are being asked to be the fall guys in terms ofassessments of the number of hours additional teaching support requiredfor pupils with special needs, when the real problem is the resourcing from the Department of Education," stated Gogarty.

"We also have cases of recommendations and reports from outside professionals which are being rejected by NEPS because they don't fitthe criteria of Circular 8|02 and other guidelines. This is unacceptable and the Minister has questions to answer, particularly in relation to
the forthcoming Education for Persons with Disabilities Bill."