Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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That will be in the context of the budget. I am conscious that the day-to-day running of schools, including things such as oil, is a big issue. The 5% increase in capitation was a start in the right direction. I am conscious that it certainly is not far enough.

Improvements to the caretakers and secretaries grant were made in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019 to enable schools to implement the arbitration salary increase for grant-funded school secretaries and caretakers, to pay increases for cleaners and to implement the restoration of salary for cleaners arising from the unwinding of the financial emergency measures in the public interest, FEMPI, legislation. While there have been increases, I am conscious of the issue of the stability and certainty around the role of caretaking staff and some secretarial staff.

The Deputy also made reference to replacement of prefabs. I have been to many primary schools where some fifth and sixth class pupils have spent all their primary school education in prefabs. Some of them are not in great shape but the schools are waiting for the new build or new extension to come along.

While much patience has been shown, sometimes that patience reaches a limit when it comes to trying to get the education environment in a good place. We need to keep a strong focus on adapting the building suitability for autistic students and those with special needs, as is happening in some of the newer primary and secondary schools.

Deputy McLoughlin spoke about the capitation increase from last year and asked about next year's budget. I am conscious that it was reduced by 11% in 2011, which was a big hit for schools. While we have come back up by 5%, I acknowledge a body of work remains to be done there. I discuss this with my officials weekly. I re-emphasise - I know it is also coming from this committee - the importance of capitation. We will look at that in the context of the next budget.

We will have an additional 950 SNAs this year, which will bring the cohort of SNAs up to about 16,000. We have increased teaching staff by 372 this year. That is part of an overall increase to the effectiveness of schools. Yesterday in Scoil Naomh Pádraig in Drumshanbo, the principal pointed out that the SNAs there keep the school moving. That is how intrinsically linked they are to the school. They do not work in silos and are very much part of that. I am anxious to push ahead with the SNA recommendation. We will look at a pilot in that area and I want to see more integration between the HSE and the Department of Education and Skills. We will make that happen. We will do a pilot in September. We will look at key issues that were raised in this committee in my first week in the job about dealing with cases where a clinical nurse, a speech and language professional or an occupational therapist is needed. We need to work in a more collective way on that. That pilot will be the signalling post for how we develop in the future.

The Deputy also asked about school transport. Anyone living in a rural constituency will know the phones start ringing in the last week in August. There are issues. In defence of Bus Éireann, it has a mammoth task every year. The numbers change every year with new people coming in and other people leaving. Bus Éireann obviously works within the rules and guidelines of the policy it is given. I am working with the officials on the school transport area. The Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, has been very proactive in this area in applying more common sense in the area. I know Deputy Funchion has raised this issue in respect of her constituency. Sometimes local people can come up with a common-sense solution, but sometimes if the wall of policy comes up against them it can lead to unbelievable frustration. I am very conscious we need to try to protect the integrity of certain parishes as best we can and the integrity of traditional school choice. Sometimes the closest school might not be the traditional school of choice for many people. When this change came in in 2012, it got rid of the closed school amalgamation rule. It caused considerable upset in communities and I am working very closely with my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, on the matter.