Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Thomas Byrne acknowledged the progress we have made in areas such as the pupil-teacher ratio, guidance and resource teaching, for which he is a strong advocate. These improvements have been significant and I welcome the Deputy's support for them.

The Deputy also raised the issue of newly qualified teachers. Negotiations with teachers, which took place within three months of my appointment, delivered significant improvements. As a result of these changes, which were rolled out in January 2017 and January 2018, approximately 75% of the pay gap for newly qualified teachers and teachers has been closed. A new entrant to teaching will now earn €36,000, which is a significant improvement. I acknowledge that this is a continuing source of concern for the teacher trade unions and creates tension in the workplace. For that reason, this matter was specifically listed when the most recent public service pay agreement was negotiated. While no specific provision was made in this area, it was listed as an area in which a process should commence and a process commenced last October when the teachers' unions entered into the agreement. As agreed in the Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act, a report was laid by the Minister for Finance around St. Patrick's Day setting out the costs of addressing new entrant pay across the public service. It is in the context of that report that the Minister indicated he would start discussions with the trade unions, including the teacher unions. The issue is not a sectoral one but extends across the public service. I understand it is intended to commence discussions on the matter shortly. Deputy Catherine Martin indicated that the Government has not set timelines or pathways. As has been signalled, this is the start of negotiations.

Capitation levels are without doubt an area of pressure for schools. While we are providing a significant increase in funding of €450 million this year and we provided a similar amount last year, it still comes down to many competing demands for the money available. In the past two years, we were not able to make provision for an increase in capitation, although we made provision in other areas such as investment in digital resources, the pupil-teacher ratio, guidance and special needs. There has always been competition for resources. I am conscious, however, that capitation needs to be addressed.

While I do not have figures with me on broadband, we started from a poor base in primary schools in 2014-2015. High-speed broadband is now available in 1,100 primary schools, which, as the Deputy noted, is approximately one third of the total. We hope to connect another 400 schools this year, with further schools being added in subsequent years. While HEAnet does the connecting up of schools on behalf of the Department, it still depends on the roll-out of national programmes that can be accessed by schools. I fully agree that an upgrade is required in this area because high-speed broadband of speeds of 30 Mgbs or more needs to be delivered.