Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. During Private Members' time last week and on Friday my party brought forward, with the support of the other Opposition parties and I thank Deputy O'Brien for his party's support, a proposal to require the Minister and the Department to ensure an impact assessment is done in advance of introducing budgetary measures which impact on education. The Minister spoke about ensuring schools conduct self-evaluations, with which I agree. Evaluation at all stages in the education system is important to measure effectiveness. However, it is crucial that the same self-evaluation is also undertaken at departmental and political level. Since the Minister took office he has introduced a number of budgetary cuts, such as cuts to DEIS schools, and an impact assessment was not done.

In fact, in partially reversing those DEIS cuts the Minister himself said he had not fully evaluated the impact they would have and that if he had done so he would not have taken that decision.

The pupil-teacher ratio cuts in further education were discussed in detail here last week. I see, however, that after making that decision the Minister has asked County Dublin VEC for an impact assessment. That evaluation should have been done before the decision was taken. We will now see the impact it will have on the ability of many colleges of further education to carry out that work and continue the courses they provide. It will affect many specialist courses in particular.

From now on, there should be an engagement concerning the impact assessment and it should be published. There should also be an engagement with the education committees and the sector generally as to the impact of any proposals before they are introduced.

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