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

I will make a few comments myself. On subhead AO7, I assume non-teaching staff salaries means ancillary staff such as caretakers and secretaries who are in many ways the infrastructure of the school. It is important that we have good people who are well-supported and well-resourced. I note this relates to delays in filling vacancies. In general, we have to recognise those who are in non-teaching roles and do what we can to support them because many of them are not paid adequately.

On the SOLAS grants, I thought we would have been in a situation where the Minister needed more money rather than giving money back to this. There should be more flexibility to be creative if there is extra money. For example, this committee spoke to the young people who represented Ireland at the WorldSkills Competition in Abu Dhabi. They were fantastic and won seven medals between them. A suggestion I made at that stage was that we should look at promoting these types of apprenticeships and skills, with such things as the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. That has raised the bar for young people studying science. We need to do the same. I know that SOLAS have a stand at the National Ploughing Championships. That is nearly the biggest space to be able to encourage and showcase what is happening. Could money be spent on different things like that rather than just not spending it? I support the views of my colleague on the question of SUSI grants. Surely if there is money in the pot it should be used in other ways to promote those who maybe did not get it in the first round? If there is extra money, it should go back into that. I appreciate that it would take a lot of time and resources but I think it would be worth doing.