Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

I wish to share time with Deputy McManus. In the short time available to me I will address the Estimates for the education sector. Deputy Carey said there is an increase in provision and I welcome that. However, Ireland is still far below other European countries and OECD norms in terms of the amount of its national wealth that is spent on education. Ireland is 29th out of 31 countries in a recent OECD report.

There must be a substantial increase in spending on education if needs are to be addressed. There is a need for school placements for children. It has been estimated by the ESRI that the number of schoolgoing children will increase by 20% over the next decade. Obviously many of those children will live in the developing areas around cities, particularly Dublin. However, there is no evidence in the Estimates that this issue will be addressed either next year or in the future. I urge the Minister for Education and Science and the Government to address this problem seriously and ensure that schools are in place for children when they are needed.

A specific example of this, which has been highlighted in the media, is the problem in the Laytown and Bettystown areas. School places were not available for children in those areas this year and some of the children had to go to schools far from their homes. Others had to go to school in the afternoon. Despite the fact that I raised the need for a new school in that area in 2004 by way of parliamentary questions in March and May, there was no effective response by the Department. To judge from information given to the education committee recently, that continues to be the case. In fact, the public consultation process on the area development plan for north Dublin, south Louth and east Meath is only commencing in December this year even though the need already obviously exists.

The Government must change the system and purchase land for schools, rather than simply identifying sites, at an early stage in the planning process. That will save money. At present, developers can name their price when they know a school is urgently needed in a developing area. In my constituency Gaelscoil Sairséil has been in temporary and totally unsuitable accommodation for more than a decade. It urgently needs a site so the developers can simply name their price. That is a waste of public money and does not provide for the basic educational needs of children. This issue must be urgently addressed.

Educate Together is the body that deals with multidenominational schools. It has had to stop supporting parents seeking multidenominational education in new areas, even though that is the parents' constitutional right. The Council of Europe recently again made a statement about Ireland's need to support the provision of multidenominational education. I had a telephone call from a parent in Carlow last week about this. The parents are ready to make an application for a new school but Educate Together cannot provide the patronage for them or for parents in three other areas in the country that are ready to make these applications. It cannot establish the school and provide for the rights of parents in those areas who want a multidenominational school. I call on the Government to provide appropriate funding for Educate Together in the budget so it can be the patron body for the new schools in these areas where they are urgently needed. This is a crisis that must be addressed.

There are many other areas in education I could mention but time is limited. Deputy Carey referred to the problem of young people dropping out of school and the need to support them. He was speaking in the context of the justice area. I welcome the fact that the National Educational Welfare Board has been allocated an increase of resources from €8.1 million to €9.8 million, but it still does not have the money to carry out some of the functions for which it is responsible under the legislation. One of those functions is to track early school leavers and ensure they are appropriately directed to education, training or whatever course suits and interests them. The board does not have the funding to do that; it barely has the funding to deal with crisis situations where children are missing school.

It cannot deal with cases where children are missing for fewer than the 20 days that must be reported, even where parents request it to do so. I am aware of a parent whose son is not going to school when she sends him there. She has been told that until it reaches a crisis the board cannot deal with the problem. It cannot pre-empt these problems and deal with them when they can be dealt with.

Capitation is another issue. It is not keeping pace with the increased cost of electricity, gas and so forth. I could say more on this subject but I will have an opportunity to do so at a later stage.

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