Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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I thank the Minister and welcome back everyone who was here very late last night. I welcome all the new people as well for today's meeting. I wish to discuss two connected matters and one that is separate. The first is the school completion programme. I always talk about it because I came from working in the school completion programme. Having spoken to colleagues over the past number of months, with retention plans being done, it is difficult for them to budget with the challenge of the increased cost for increments for staff. When staff are paid by increment, if the budget does not increase to support those increments, that means a reduction in programmes, for example, summer programmes, Easter camps and all the things the school completion programme does so well. Will the Department increase budgets in line with staff increments that happen yearly? I know the Minister probably hears this every day when talking about budgets but everything has increased in cost. Hiring a bus, for example, is really expensive. I have heard it from schools, youth services and the school completion programme. How will the Department tackle the issue of the budget for the school completion programme maxing out from the HR perspective, meaning there is no money for admin or programme delivery such as afterschool, homework clubs and summer camps, etc.?