Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)

I will leave Deputy Broughan to deal with Dublin North-East. There has been a substantial programme. One must be realistic in terms of what we can do at this point.

In regard to class sizes, there are exceptions to every rule and I will focus, in particular, on schools with large numbers of foreign national pupils in their midst whose command of English is not too good. We need to put extra language teachers into those schools and I will ask the Minister to deal with that issue in a very flexible and considerate manner.

We want to reduce numbers going forward and as money permits. We have good school buildings and a teacher-pupil ratio of 28:1. Most of us in this House went to schools with a pupil-teacher ratio of 35:1 or 40:1, or at least I certainly did and it did not do me any harm. There were 35 pupils in my children's classes and they all went to college and got degrees, masters' degrees, etc., which I did not.

I do not believe the pupil-teacher ratio is a major problem. We have quality teachers and I trust them to deliver a good education, as they have done over the years. That is our hope. The odd school will have problems and I recognise that it should be helped. However, for the next couple of years, we will live with a pupil-teacher ratio of 28:1. I do not believe there should be any arguments in that regard.

As a Deputy for Dublin North, one of the emerging locations for new business and research and development, I welcome the tax credits which the Minister has introduced in the budget. A sum of €335 million has been provided for research and development. That makes Ireland competitive in the global knowledge economy and it is an increase of 3% on last year, which is very welcome. When one considers that the current budget is nine times the investment we made in 2000, it is substantial and recognises the role the Government sees for business. I wish the Taoiseach and the business delegation travelling to China well in their efforts to bring business and badly needed jobs to our country. We need to encourage as many overseas companies as possible to set up research facilities on these shores.

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