Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her comprehensive presentation and for coming before the committee. The very significant and welcome changes that happened in the budget should be acknowledged. I know colleagues have talked about the free school books initiative and some of the investment in special education needs to acknowledged, but something we do not talk about enough, because it has been banged on about enough around this table, is the reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level to the lowest level ever. This needs to be recognised.

One of the other areas the Minster looked to address was around school buses. She came in for some unfair criticism from this committee on a previous occasion. Will the Minister give committee members an update on the planned review of the school transport scheme and where the overall review of the scheme is at? More people have obviously taken up bus tickets this year than ever before, but we would like to be in a situation where we can guarantee them to every student.

I support the Minister on the leaving certificate reform initiative and the fact that there is a student representative on the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment, NCCA, shows how her approach has been student-centred. Will the Minister provide an update on the roll-out of the two new subjects? Both climate and sustainability and also theatre, drama and film studies, are very welcome subjects.

Reflecting on Deputy Cathal Crowe's question about specialisations in primary school with regard to teaching, one of the areas he did not mention was the modern language initiative which was pulled back a number of years ago. Is there any intention in future of looking at rolling out modern European languages at primary school level?