Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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It is a considerable Supplementary Estimate, €852 million, and yet the headwinds within the economy are such that every single part of that Estimate has good reason to be there. We can all see it from the ongoing Covid provisions to catering for Ukrainian students. Even things like general building costs have escalated. That is one point that I would receive positively. It is very good to see that the building programme is going ahead when there are barriers to construction all across the economy. It is very welcome indeed.

The questions I have are on items that have been threshed out at some length in this committee already. My first question is around the summer education programme, which has been discussed at length at the Joint Committee on Autism. I accept that we chose to expand it to try to make back some of the educational losses, particularly those caused by Covid. However, I have a slight concern that in trying to make the programme too wide, we have strayed quite far from what it was originally intended to do. At the autism committee we heard many families' testimonies on that. It might be outside of the Supplementary Estimate as such, but the additional substitution costs bring to mind the difficulty we are having in getting teachers and substitute teachers, particularly around the Dublin area. There is a weighting for teachers in London, but I do not know if that would work in the Irish context. I would be interested to hear if the Department has ever considered it.

I have written to the Department before and put down parliamentary questions on the subject of school buses. Public transport services often run alongside school bus provision. One may not be cognisant of what the other is doing. There should be a way of getting increased efficiencies and more places to school kids in a way that also provides public services to other people.

The idea of solar schools is something that was announced in the budget. Am I right in thinking it is the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications that is going to be funding that? I do not see mention of it here. We are all anxious to see solar panels on our schools as soon as is practicable, but I would like to see where the money is coming from.