Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is ring-fenced to the extent that where the student population grows - and we know it is growing - extra teachers required are being hired. That is unlike the position in other Departments. It is only to a certain extent that the education budget has been ring-fenced, as each departmental budget must amount to an overall targeted total of public expenditure. The reason for this target is our current position of deficit, where we are borrowing money to provide public services. We are raising taxes and many people are struggling and finding it difficult, so we do not want to put any more of a burden on them, so to speak, in their outgoings. We must try to find savings within the education budget as a result, which is of the order of €8 billion. Within it I have been asked to find €44 million.

We thought we could find a reduction in reducing by a portion of time the allocation of resource teachers to children with special needs. When this was announced, it provoked a reaction that we all saw and I listened to it before deciding to change the policy. In so doing, I had to say that I will find the resources, as I did with the DEIS issue, where we were not taking out DEIS posts but rather legacy posts that had been put in before the DEIS system and retained. In that case there may have been two DEIS schools beside one another with one having more resources than the other because it got its resources earlier. When that attempt at levelling the field provoked a reaction - I understand the reasons the reaction was clear and sincere - we altered the decision, and I have done so again in this case. The modification means that if we must deploy an extra 500 teachers into 2014, the cost will be of the order of €22 million, and we must consider this on top of the €44 million.

I stated that I presumed I would have to find this resource from within my Department. I was asked to put a figure on that and I was asked where it was likely I would get it. All I indicated was that the only place one could easily get money of that particular order was in the pupil-teacher ratio. I assure the Deputy that no decision has been made. I was asked a question and I gave an open and honest answer to it. The question of whether those adjustments in the departmental budgets must be made, who will make them and when it will happen, as well as the issue of exemptions, are part of the budgetary process. That has started and the budget this year will be on 15 October, two months earlier than normal because of European co-ordination purposes. The process has commenced but no decision has been made so I cannot give an indication or assurance about any aspect of the process until its completion.

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