Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

The national development plan, NDP, investment in computers and information and communications technology, ICT, would be doubled at a cost of €43 million. More National Educational Psychological Service, NEPS, psychologists would be provided at a cost of €4.5 million and more education welfare officers at a cost of €18.2 million. Service level agreements with patron bodies would receive funding of €1.5 million. There is a host of other initiatives in our programme which come to €1 billion in total. That is what is needed. Rather than talk around the issues, I call on all parties to give firm, tangible commitments. The time for platitudes is over; it is time to speak clearly on class sizes and other issues.

I call on Deputy Rabbitte to say things are not so. If he can afford to divvy out €1 billion in tax cuts, he should at least outline how much he would spend on education. I might be proven wrong about the Labour Party's commitment on this issue in the next hour and if I am, I will be delighted on behalf of teachers and parents.

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