Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The third commitment to which the Deputy refers is due to be delivered upon over the lifetime of the Government and it will be met during that period. On the first two commitments, no one in the House anticipated the slowdown that occurred in the economy. Everything in the programme for Government is predicated on strong economic growth. The Tánaiste and Minister for Finance had an obligation to ensure that, via the budget, improvements could be maintained into the future and a similar obligation rests with Ministers in other Departments. It would not be sufficient for people to congratulate the Tánaiste on keeping a tight rein on expenditure and ensuring that it is well focused, as is the case in the area of education, while stating that all other Departments should spend money willy-nilly.

It is our intention to meet all our commitments under the programme for Government. I would like to have done more in respect of school funding, particularly in light of the time-specific aspect, and on class sizes. However, an additional 1,100 teachers will be employed next year. We made a specific commitment in the programme for Government that an extra 4,000 teachers would be employed during the term of office of this Administration. When one takes into account the number of new teachers employed last September and the number that will be taken on in September of this year, we will already be half way towards reaching our goal in this regard. While we may not reach the specific target for this year, we will reach the target as regards the number of additional teachers to be employed this year.

I have highlighted the two commitments in respect of which I would like to have done more. However, it is our intention to meet these commitments during the lifetime of the programme for Government. The additional €690 million is a significant amount of money.

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