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

I welcome the opportunity to speak about the budget. For two parties that prided themselves on their commitment to reform, the lack of detail provided for the Opposition on the budget is surprising. We received little more than a three year projection for expenditure, alongside the tax measures announced by the Minister for Finance. The relevant Departments have not given details of what is happening under each heading or subheading, other than headline figures. The Minister for Education and Skills had the audacity to challenge my party's figures for the education budget. I assure her that the education measures we brought forward had been fully costed and were based in reality. It was rich to hear these claims from her, given the lack of detail provided on the education budget.

The Government has taken an unfortunate approach to framing next year's budget. I welcome the departure from previous budgets allowed by the fact that the economy has grown and that thankfully there is now space to look upwards again. Unfortunately, the Government has decided not to invest in much needed services and has instead opted for headline grabbing and vote winning measures. It was clear from the leaks to the media that the headline for the budget would be a reduction in the 41% rate. Fianna Fáil has taken a different approach, however, because we believe that at a time when people cannot get into hospitals or have to wait two years to see an orthopaedic consultant, never mind have an operation, when class sizes are the highest in Europe and when people are merely scraping by, it is the wrong choice to cut the higher rate of tax instead of trying to improve the services on which people rely. We heard a lot from the Minister about how she values education as a key platform for our future. The reality of what we see in the budget bears no resemblance to public relations. The budget provides for no additional spending to improve education services. It merely provides for additional spending to meet demographic changes. There will be an additional 13,000 students at primary and secondary level next year. As one would expect as a minimum, funding has been provided for extra teachers and special needs assistants to allow these children to start school in September.

That will in no way improve the situation in classes where many children are taught in groups of more than 30 and in some cases 35 children. Nor will it improve the situation in schools which are chronically underfunded and require the help of parents and the local community on a month-to-month basis to make ends meet.

In particular with regard to education, the budget is one of more cuts in the same vein as we have seen under the previous Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. At third level, the registration fee students must pay has increased by a further €250 bringing it to €3,000. We all know what commitment was given when the Government took office and was running for election. The parties opposite seemed to understand then the difficulties many families faced in sending young people to college and it gave a commitment not to increase fees. In fact, it gave a commitment to reduce them by €500 yet the budget sees a further €250 increase for students starting college next September. It sees a further 1% reduction in the capitation fees paid to primary schools for each student. It also sees a 1% reduction in the capitation fee paid to secondary schools. Those, unfortunately, are the key measures and changes in the budget and they consist of cuts. There has been no additional investment over what was in the budget presented last year. The PR we will see trying to give the impression that the additional teachers will somehow help the situation faced by students does not wash with schools.

In setting out its budget submission, Fianna Fáil put a very strong emphasis on a few key public service areas putting education to the fore with health, including mental health and disability services. In our submission, we made other sacrifices and did not go for the headlining grabbing and vote winning exercises prioritised by the Government such as cutting the 41% rate of tax. Instead, we provided for a reduction in the size of classes with €50 million to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio from 28:1 to 27:1. We provided in our pre-budget submisison for €20 million to roll back the cuts the Government has made over the last three years to smaller schools of four, three and one teachers. These make up half of all primary schools in the country. We provided the funding to reverse the teacher losses in those schools.

We also provided for a guaranteed minor works grant of €28 million, which the Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan has not done. My colleagues in Sinn Féin did not provide for it either. As a result of the Minister failing to make provision for a minor works grant in the budget, the average primary school will have a €9,500 hole in its finances. It will be a minimum of €5,500 regardless of the size of the school and will increase depending on the number of students. That €9,500 is essential to the running of schools and the hard-pressed families the Government pretends to try to support will be asked by schools to pony up through cake sales, charity runs or Strictly Come Dancing fund-raisers. I note that the Minister said today she hoped that if there was a bit of spare cash, she might be able to pay it. On behalf of primary schools and the communities across the country that value those schools, I suggest the payment of essential funding should not be an afterthought. It should be central funding provided for in the budget but the Minister has not done it.

Fianna Fáil also provided for an increase in the number of resource teachers over and above what was required to maintain the demographic dividend. We allocated €30 million to employ 500 additional resource teachers to bring the amount of teaching to qualified students up from 85% to 92.5% with a view to extending it further in the following year. We also provided for €30 million for guidance counselling in schools. It is essential given the particular qualifications of guidance counsellors to work with young people. Unfortunately, the Government has gone down an entirely different route which places no weight on additional investment in education. In fact, it is on a backwards rather than a forwards path and has continued with the cuts of previous years to pile pressure onto schools, which means pressure on families in turn. Those families with young children are among the most hard pressed in what continues to be a financially strained society.

I emphasise that the Government is on the wrong path and must change its approach. We must see measures and efforts from the Government which improve educational services rather than undermine them as is happening on foot of the budget.

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