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

I remind members, officials and those in the Gallery to ensure their mobile phones are switched off for the duration of the meeting as they will interfere with the broadcasting equipment. The meeting has been convened to consider the Revised Estimate for Vote 26 - Education and Skills, which was referred by the Dáil to the committee with an instruction to report back.

I formally welcome the Minister, Deputy Richard Bruton, the Minister of State, Deputy John Halligan, and their officials. I thank them for their open and constructive dialogue with the committee secretariat's financial scrutiny team in developing the briefing document for this meeting. I inform the Ministers that the committee has agreed to proceed programme by programme and will initially focus on specific subheads before broaching any questions relating to the remainder of the programme. We will refer to the briefing document prepared by the financial scrutiny team of the committee secretariat to guide our consideration of the Revised Estimates. In programme A we will start with subhead A3, primary teachers' salaries, on page ten of the committee secretariat's briefing. Members should indicate their interest in contributing on that topic.