Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

While we have had to make savings by abolishing student support for some new postgraduate students, we will make a contribution towards the fees of postgraduate students from the lowest income backgrounds. Substantial allocations will also continue to be made to assist students from lower income backgrounds to achieve an undergraduate qualification.

The Department of Education and Skills will continue the drive to reduce administration costs by proactively pushing rationalisation, efficiencies and economies in budgets, including the rationalisation as already announced of VECs, the optimal configuration of school provision, reviewing allowances, the establishment of a single awarding authority for student grants and the merger of various educational bodies.

The measures in the education area that I am announcing today will save €132.3 million in 2012. This will allow the necessary expenditure targets to be met, but will also provide the Minister for Education and Skills with the necessary resources to pursue important policy initiatives such as junior certificate reform and implementation of the literacy and numeracy strategy. The 2012 savings measures include a requirement for post-primary schools to manage guidance provision from within their existing pupil-teacher ratio allocations, which will save €10.4 million; a reduction in capitation grants to schools by 2% will make savings of €7 million; a phased withdrawal from 2012 of supports in some schools from earlier disadvantage schemes predating the current DEIS schemes, which will save €6.5 million;-----

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