Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)

It is not enough for me either, but we will let him in somehow.

Yesterday evening, when speaking on the Book of Estimates, I referred to the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, who had entered the Chamber without her script. When I asked her for it, the usual procedure when a Minister speaks on the Estimates or on any other important occasion, she told me she was not obliged to furnish it. That is not the approach we should have in this House, since it lowers the standards previously adhered to.

I pointed out to the Minister her foolish spending on prefabs. We have prefab villages growing up around schools across the country and this year the Minister is spending more than €20 million on renting them. If that money was spent on providing permanent extensions to schools, we would achieve far better value for money. It is a scandal that we pay approximately €60,000 per annum to rent a prefab at a school but will not provide the same amount to it for a permanent extension. It is wasteful and shows the Minister failing to address the relevant issues; I regret that she is not here to hear that point.

I welcome the increase of which the Minister spoke regarding her departmental Estimates for the coming year. She outlined many areas where it will be felt. However, she must urgently address the fact that over the next five years there will be approximately 60,000 extra children at primary school, equating to 2,300 classrooms. Planning for those additional schools should now be well advanced. We will have a situation like that in Mullingar, where there are no places for children at primary school. Parents must drive six, eight or ten miles out of town with their children to find a school at which they might be enrolled and that is not good enough. There must be a forward planning section in the Department that can examine those areas of expansion and plan in advance so that we do not end up with this ridiculous situation permanently.

The Minister trumpeted an increase of 17% for the National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, and I also welcome it. However, she did not mention that 50% of schools in the country do not have access to NEPS. At the same time, we have a NEPS office in Mullingar, only one third of which is being used, despite the fact that rent is being paid for its entirety. That is an absolute waste of money. Why did the Department, in co-operation with the Office of Public Works, OPW, rent that large space without using it? There is a crying need to expand NEPS and that is not good enough.

Since the Department of Education and Science has this space, why is it not using it for an advance party in the context of it being decentralised to Mullingar? Would that not be the best use of taxpayers' money? That does not seem to matter where the Minister is concerned. It is a question of throwing the money around and seeing what happens to it.

My time is drawing to a close but Deputy Ring has indicated that he will wait until later, when he will make his major contribution.

Regarding value for money in primary schools, an excellent service provides special needs assistance across the country, but the Minister must establish a structure within schools into which special needs assistants doing good work can fit. In many schools, they are not sure where they fit in and neither are the principals. There is no programme to assess their effectiveness, use or how they might be best deployed around schools. It is crucial that the 8,000 special needs assistants be absorbed into a formal structure so that we might know how they are being looked after.

It is outrageous that approximately 150 students have been refused higher education grants because their parents happen to have availed of the special savings incentive accounts, SSIA, scheme. I am aware of three such cases in a single local authority area. Since there are approximately 60 local authorities processing grants for students across the country, we can estimate that there are perhaps 150 or 200 such students.

The SSIA payment, which came from the Government, was meant to be a tax rebate. When one has one's P60 and asks the Department of Finance whether it will add in the tax rebate that one is receiving through the SSIA, it answers in the negative. However, the Department of Education and Science takes it into account. It is backward-looking and prevents genuine students from attending college. The Minister should have addressed it.

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