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

As we come to the end of Ireland’s bailout, there are increasing reasons to be optimistic about our future. That said, we all know this year’s budget will ask more from our people, and more from our public services. Education is no different from other areas in needing to contribute to the stabilisation of the nation’s finances, but I firmly believe protecting the education system is one of the best ways to invest in Ireland’s recovery.

The current education budget for 2014 will be €8.219 billion. This is a decrease of €236 million on the outturn figure for 2013, but most of these savings will come from the Haddington Road agreement, which will hardly come as a surprise given that we employ approximately 100,000 teachers. As has been widely discussed, savings of €44 million in addition to the measures announced in previous budgets were required to stay within our spending ceiling for 2014. This was the opening task set for us. Yesterday, I announced policy measures which will deliver €33 million of these savings, while a further €11 million has been found in administrative reductions throughout the education Vote.

There have also been some new pressures which had to be managed in preparing for this year's budget. Funding was secured for the final redress payments to victims of institutional child abuse, and an additional €33 million has been added to the budget to support children with special needs. Thankfully, expenditure savings identified in other areas of the Vote, in particular in superannuation expenditure, reduced the scale of savings required to be secured through policy measures. A firm picture of the extent of these offsetting savings only crystallised recently, when departmental expenditure returns for the end of September were submitted. Historically, teachers tend to retire at the end of August and the Department does not receive this information until September. Most teachers do not retire because of chronological age but when they have the time served, so we have no way of predicting with any certainty. Fewer people retired than we anticipated which gave us a saving.

I was glad to announce yesterday that for the third year in a row the standard pupil-teacher ratio at primary level has been protected, and will remain at a level of 28:1. The same is also true at second level, and the ratios will remain at 18.25:1 in DEIS schools, 19:1 in other free schools, and 23:1 in the fee-charging sector. An additional 900 mainstream teachers have been recruited in 2013 to cater for increasing student numbers. As a result of the decision taken by Government earlier this year to protect individual resource teacher allocations at 2012 and 2013 levels, up to 500 additional resource teachers will shortly be recruited for our schools. The budget allows for similar increases in mainstream and resource teachers in 2014. Between the recruitment of additional classroom teachers and the increase in resource teachers, up to 2,800 new teaching posts will be created in 2013 and 2014 in our schools. Newly qualified and unemployed young teachers will particularly benefit from these new job opportunities.

I acknowledge the full implementation of some earlier budget measures will continue to impact on schools this year. From September 2014, the final changes to the staffing levels of small schools, which were announced two years ago, will take effect. This is with regard to adjustments to the pupil-teacher ratio. September 2014 will also see the final changes resulting from the previous Government’s decision to reduce language support posts in schools. The rates of capitation paid to schools will also reduce by a further 1% in 2014, and again by 1% in 2015.

These have been signalled well in advance to give schools time and space to do some forward planning.

Let me turn now to further education and training. There are also no changes to staffing or direct funding levels in further education and training, a sector which is being completely transformed by the creation of the 16 education and training boards to replace the 33 VECs that were there before, and also the replacement body for FÁS, known as SOLAS, the board of which was agreed at Cabinet yesterday. While provision is being protected, three measures are being introduced which will have an impact on participants in further education and training courses. In some instances, participants on FÁS or Youthreach training courses can retain their social welfare payments while also receiving FÁS or Youthreach training allowances. These concurrent payments, which are not available to those on community employment schemes or VTOS courses, are now being ended for those on FÁS or Youthreach courses. This measure will yield €5 million of savings next year. The payment of an additional €20 bonus to the long-term unemployed for participating in FÁS, VTOS and Youthreach courses will also come to an end, saving €2.1 million next year and €6.7 million in a full year. Participants on these courses will continue to be entitled to receive meal and travel allowances in addition to their social welfare payments. Both of these changes will affect only new entrants.

Apprentices, who are paid, attend institutes of technology for two ten-week periods over the course of a four-year apprenticeship. They will now be required to pay a pro ratacontribution themselves. This will amount to a contribution of around €540, payable twice over the course of a four-year apprenticeship, providing savings of €1.6 million in 2014.

Turning to higher education, I announced last year that the student contribution for third-level students would rise to €2,500 in 2013 and by a further €250 per year in 2014 and 2015. I set out the changes to the student contribution over that period in order to allow families to plan for the cost of college. There are no further changes to the student contribution included in this budget. The rates of grant payable to students and the income thresholds for student grants have also been protected this year. However, it has not been possible to entirely shield the higher education sector from changes in this budget. Department figures suggest that cash balances in higher education institutions can be as high as €450 million, although it is recognised that not all of this funding is publicly sourced and that institutions must carefully manage their cashflow. On this basis, it is clear that the higher education institutions have some capacity to deal with reduced allocations, even bearing their cashflow needs in mind. Last year, the allocations to third-level institutions were reduced by €25 million. This €25 million will be restored to the third-level institutions in 2015 rather than in the forthcoming year, as was previously planned. I expect that services should not be diminished, particularly front-line services, but that existing cash balances should be managed by the institutions to deliver the same level of services.

Since taking office, I have made clear that I believe back-to-school costs simply must be reduced for parents, particularly in these difficult times. Over the last three years, the annual budget of €15 million for schoolbooks has been preserved, and that remains the case this year. However, we know some primary schools still do not have book rental schemes, which can reduce the cost of schoolbooks for parents of young children by up to 80%. For the next three years, in addition to the €15 million that is in place, we will invest a further €5 million per year in ensuring book rental schemes exist in all of our 3,200 primary schools. Funding of €100 per child, and €150 per child in DEIS schools, will be made available to help schools that do not have book rental schemes to establish them.

Schoolbooks are not the only back-to-school costs with which parents are burdened. I am also working on a policy that will require all schools to give parents control over the cost of uniforms. I will make a separate announcement on this issue over the coming weeks.

I believe passionately that continuing to invest in education will help Ireland's recovery. With regard to protecting class sizes and increasing the investment in resource teachers in our schools, up to 2,800 additional staff will be recruited to our schools between 2013 and 2014. In order to help tackle youth unemployment, a minimum of 2,000 training places will be ring-fenced for under-25s who are out of work in 2014, at a cost of €6 million. Since our taking office, 2,700 new classrooms have been constructed under the school building programme, which has provided high-quality classrooms for more than 66,000 children at a cost of €800 million. The announcement of the 2014 school building programme in November will continue this momentum, including major school building projects, which will cost a further €470 million. This investment will create 4,300 direct jobs and 860 indirect jobs.

This year, the Government is making it very clear that education is important to all of us and that investing in education means investing in our recovery.

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