Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I appreciate that she is operating in difficult and constrained circumstances but it is a little disingenuous, perhaps not on her part but on that of her officials, to suggest that the €25 million somehow is directly connected to the cuts that have been specifically targeted at fee-paying schools, which, of course, is not the case. These cuts are across the education sector and that is somewhat misleading.

It is interesting that the Minister reflects on the fact that fee-charging schools have resources through fees charged to employ additional teachers, etc. This is the issue. They are being driven out of the fee-paying sector and into the free education scheme, which puts additional pressures on the public purse.

I fully subscribe to the vision of the late Donogh O'Malley. He was a visionary and his vision still has its imprint on Irish education. However, the essential point, which in a sense is reflected in the Constitution as well, is that every child deserves the same support from the State. Once every child is treated equally and every child is given the same degree of access and the same support by the State, which is the principle of universality, above and beyond that support by the State it is the choice of parents. Some parents choose to spend their additional disposable income on ski holidays or other options in terms of personal expenditure and some make significant sacrifices and forgo everything to send their children to a fee-paying school in order to further their child's education, and that choice is something that is now being diminished because of the choices of the Government. That is regrettable.

I look forward to when the Bill on schools admission policy comes before the House. Unfortunately, I will not have the opportunity to raise it now.

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