Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Okay. I make the point that extra teachers will be needed in the autumn to meet the new applications that are coming in from students who will start school and also for those who missed the February deadline and who are currently in the system awaiting allocation. Without some clarity as to how many additional teachers over and above the cap will be available this autumn to meet that additional demand, because the cap has now been reached in simply providing for existing demand, those students who need those resource teachers will simply be left waiting. This is an issue on which I did not consider there was clarity in the Minister's announcement of the bringing forward of the hiring of the 500, and clarity is needed.

On another point, the Minister mentioned in regard to the capital assets test that he has a rough figure of €6 million. He used the term "working capital" and said he was making a distinction between working capital needed for running a business or a farm and other types of capital. Will he elaborate further on what he means by working capital? Is it, for example, a business premises and land itself or is it the money used on a day-to-day basis to keep the business operating?

With regard to the Haddington Road agreement, the Minister indicated that the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has allocated €51 million to the Department of Education and Skills this year in terms of the savings that have been found. Was that €51 million budgeted for this time last year? Is this €51 million the Minister did not expect he would have?

On another point concerning the Haddington Road agreement, I find it hard to work out why there is not clarity as to what the savings will be for the Department in 2014 and 2015 considering the amount of negotiation that would have gone into this with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and the unions. Before anything was signed off, it would have been crystal clear what the savings from education were going to be.