Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The 2011 gross Voted allocation for my Department is just under €8.855 billion. This is a reduction of €147 million, or 1.6%, on the 2010 allocation. In addition, the 2011 provision for expenditure under the national training fund of €362 million represents a reduction of €60 million, or 14%, on 2010, due mainly to a projected significant reduction in fund income.

The €147 million reduction in the Voted allocation for next year is an aggregate figure and takes account of reduced allocations in respect of certain areas of expenditure and of increased allocations for other areas. In regard to capital expenditure, the allocation of €491 million represents a reduction of €216 million, or 31%, compared to 2010. On the current expenditure side, the Voted allocation of €8.364 billion represents an increase of just under 1% on the 2010 figure. Within this, the pensions provision for next year of €1.091 billion is 8.7% or €87 million higher than 2010, while the 2011 allocation for pay of €5.406 billion is €14 million or 0.3% higher than in 2010. The non-pay balance of current expenditure of €1.867 billion compares with an allocation for 2010 of €1.898 billion, a reduction of 1.6%.

In addition to the reduction in capital expenditure in 2011, Voted current expenditure for next year takes account of further savings of some €175 million. These include savings on school transport, public sector numbers, supervision and substitution, student support, third level and post-leaving certificate charges, training allowances, funding grants to schools and a range of administrative savings. Some €73 million of this €175 million relates to pay.

In the context of the considerable savings now required, the Government has gone as far as it can to protect front line education services. We have also sought to limit the impact of savings on families, in particular, less well-off families and families where two or more family members avail of a service. This is why a family cap will apply in respect of the revised school transport charges and why families with two or more dependents at third level, or those that are marginally over the income levels for higher education grant support, will be protected from the full impact of the introduction of the student contribution. In addition, students eligible for maintenance grant support and from less well-off families will be protected from the new charge for post-leaving certificate courses.

As the Deputy will be aware, achieving savings in the education and skills budget is never easy and this is particularly so at a time of growing numbers in our schools and increased demands on services. The challenge is how to achieve savings in the sector in a balanced and measured way that does not impact detrimentally on the systemic importance and strengths of our education and skills infrastructure or overly burden students or families.

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