The Government has effectively had no choice but to sign up to the decisions in the agreement that must be met in 2011 and 2012. These decisions include a number of savings measures across the education sector decided by the previous Government. Some other savings decisions, covering the period 2012-14, have yet to be formulated in order for the overall EU and IMF expenditure reduction targets to be reached. Identifying and securing further savings in the education sector will be a challenge.

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