Mr. Frank Jones:

I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his questions. Specifically on the issue of funding, I would approach it from two perspectives. One is the perspective of diversity. Our pupil-teacher ratio is wrong. We are still way behind the OECD average. In higher and further education our ratio is 20 students per teacher or lecturer whereas the OECD average is 15:1. There is a significant cost to that. It requires a significant investment in higher and further education, which will assist in improving the diversity among teachers and will assist teacher training. It should address that issue.