Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I am committed to ensuring that we increase the standards of science and the facilities available to its teaching in our schools. Before Christmas I allocated capital funding for schools for science and science teaching. Equally, some of the proposals involve extraordinary expense though they would no doubt be very valuable, such as the employment of school laboratory assistants, which would cost an extra €18.8 million annually. This would raise questions for other practical subject teachers such as woodwork, metalwork and home economics teachers, who would not have assistance. Such assistance in those areas is not found throughout Europe.

We invested substantially in the development of school science laboratories last year and this year to upgrade them so that the syllabus can be introduced as needed. We are moving forward in every way we can but some developments, such as employing laboratory assistants, are not currently feasible. Other major developments such as in-teacher training can, however, have a huge impact on schools and teaching if new approaches are introduced. The use of technology and its application will also help the development of the sciences.

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