Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I agree with some of the sentiment of the Deputy. In a perfect world, we would have the perfect pot of money to allow us to do everything we could within the education sphere to ensure the amount of voluntary contributions made by parents through charitable donations and fundraising was lessened considerably. There is a macroeconomic picture, however, and we must reduce the deficit to 3% by a certain year. Fianna Fáil subscribes to that philosophy and that means the education silo has a finite pot of money. To govern is to choose, and we must make choices about where to allocate funding. With regard to the comment about electioneering, Deputy McConalogue's party is a dab hand at making announcements prior to elections. Let us take the cynicism out of it and say that we have tried to ensure we put money into schools through the minor works scheme and the summer works scheme where it is necessary. Some schools missed out because of the prioritisation process, but they are not being cut out of the pot. Hopefully, these schools will go in the pot for next year, and it is the intention, if we are €500 million ahead of profile in terms of overall taxation receipts, that it will reflect positively on the education budget. This will allow us to fund projects such as those outlined in the question.

See this speech in context