Fiona O'Loughlin (Kildare South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will ask a few questions and then revert back to the Minister. I will give every Deputy an opportunity to make comment and revert back again to the Minister for his closing remarks.

To a certain extent, I am in agreement with my colleagues. It is always important to see extra investment in education, something for which we have all been fighting in the Dáil Chamber and at this committee. Having proper sustainable development in the right area is equally important. I understand this is the largest Supplementary Estimate placed before the House for many years, which is significant. The saving of €24 million on salaries should have been reinvested to address the issue of pay inequity, to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio, to provide extra resource teachers and possibly to restore teachers for the Traveller community. Some of it could also have been invested in professional development education courses for teachers. It is an opportunity wasted.

Regarding non-teaching staff, the school secretaries and caretakers I know are doing sterling work and it amazes that they have to be paid from the ancillary grant which does not cover their full pay. Caretakers, in particular, have an onerous job which includes having to deal with sophisticated electronics and boilers and work with cleaning staff. There is a lot of hustle and bustle both inside and outside school in terms of opening and closing hours and I do not think they are rewarded sufficiently for what they do above and beyond their salary.

I welcome the €100 million investment, but we need to ensure it will add value to get more bang for our buck in addressing real needs, as Deputy Thomas Byrne said, above and beyond what was projected. I would certainly like to see investment in my area. There are competing demands from various schools in all of our constituencies and it would be interesting and helpful to get feedback on that issue.

I said we would hand back to the Minister, but there are now two Government Deputies present and it would only be fair to give them an opportunity to speak. Does Deputy Jim Daly wish to speak?