Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)

——and what will be the scale of cutbacks in the teaching sector.

Education is the future and if the State or the Government are not in a position to provide an educational system for the primary and secondary school children of the nation, we have failed in that regard. These are the people who will be obliged to compete with their international peers from the new European counties, the far eastern countries and throughout the world. As Ireland will not have as many manufacturing jobs as it had previously, we must be able to adapt, be flexible and deal with the future. In this budget, which now is only a discussion document that is open to negotiation at all turns of the road, the Government deliberately went the other way, although it had alternatives. Will the Government publish the enrolment figures for the country's schools submitted to it on 30 September in order that Members can verify who is telling the truth? Second, what savings are projected by the Government as a result of increasing the pupil-teacher ratio figures?

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