Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I will go through it fairly quickly. The Minister of State, Deputy English, and I thank the committee for the opportunity to be here. I want to give a brief opening statement on the other element of the meeting.

For the mid-year review of 2015 expenditure, the briefing slides we have provided to the committee present the expenditure position to the middle of August 2015, together with the main components of this expenditure. Net overall expenditure across all programme areas of €5.172 billion to the end of August was running €62 million behind profile, €80 million behind profile on current expenditure and €18 million ahead on capital expenditure. However, as things stand, it is anticipated that towards the end of the year, expenditure will come under pressure from three main areas. I mentioned one of them already - superannuation, where it looks like there will be in the region of 350 to 400 more teacher retirements in the year than originally provided for. The other anticipated sources of pressure are student support payments, where demographic pressures are impacting strongly on expenditure; and expenditure on resource teachers and SNAs. While the exact scale of these pressures is not yet known, they should be more crystallised in the coming weeks, at which stage the impact of additional students in schools and colleges will become known. A clearer picture of the number of teacher retirements will also emerge at that stage. However, my Department is at this time anticipating that a Supplementary Estimate will be required on the Vote.

Members will be aware of the figure of €600 million to €750 million indicated as being available to fund expenditure measures in the budget, including pay demands. The determination of the overall budgetary strategy for 2016 will be finalised in Government discussions over the next fortnight. I am, therefore, quite limited as to what I can say at this time. However, I welcome any inputs that members may wish to make in this matter.

The key areas of funding in the school sector include a new six-year investment programme that will fund the construction of 62,000 additional school places at primary and post-primary level to address demographic demand, as well as the completion of large-scale projects under the current programme announced in March 2012. The ongoing delivery of these additional school places will ensure that there are sufficient school accommodation places in the education system for every child to have access to a physical school place. Funding will also be available for the refurbishment of schools in older buildings that require improvement. Funding for the provision of smaller-scale classroom accommodation for schools will be maintained.

The plan also includes funding for the replacement of prefabs with permanent accommodation. Site acquisitions to facilitate the provision of new schools will continue to be funded, as will the funding of unitary charges under the public private partnership, PPP, school bundles. The plan also provides for an important investment of €210 million in IT and wireless networks in schools.

The planned total investment in the higher education sector in the period 2016 to 2021 amounts to €350 million. This figure includes direct Exchequer capital of €110 million which will enable the funding of a minor works scheme. This will enable institutes to plan for and undertake necessary improvement works, as well as commence programmes of equipment renewal, including upgrading of IT facilities. In addition to this, there remains €40 million of approved direct Exchequer capital yet to be drawn down for the Grangegorman project. Accordingly, the sector will derive an up-front capital injection of €150 million in the period up to 2021.