Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Ruth Coppinger has completely ignored the positive developments. If one looked at way the country was four years ago, it is hard to believe how we turned it around as successfully as has been the case. I know much more has to be done in building the economy and particularly society back up again, as well as providing the kinds of services to which, as Minister for Education and Skills, I am strongly and deeply committed. It will be done carefully and prudently without putting it at risk again.

Shortly after my appointment last year, I realised the extent of the challenge I faced in delivering the additional investment needed by our education system. After months of intensive discussions, I was pleased to announce the education budget will rise this year for the first time in recent years. With the support of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, I secured an increase to the current education budget of €60 million. Over the next three years, 40,000 additional students will enrol in schools, over 13,000 of them next September alone. We have now ensured the additional teachers, resource teachers and SNAs, special needs assistants, needed to support the education of those students will be provided to schools.

I note both Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin proposed some increases to the education budget in their own budget submissions last year. Unfortunately, neither party bothered to budget for the additional teachers and SNAs needed to meet demographic growth. Sinn Féin, for example, argued for an additional 1,000 teachers to be appointed. It seems to be oblivious to the fact this Government will recruit an additional 1,400 extra teachers this year to meet demographic growth. Neither party thought to budget for the additional 365 SNAs needed for our schools. By increasing the education budget this year, we are delivering the additional teachers, resource teachers and SNAs that our schools need.

The Government is also funding reforms such as the literacy and numeracy strategy, education inspections in preschool settings and the reform of the junior cycle. Based on their pre-budget submissions, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin do not seem to think we should fund any reforms that would improve outcomes for our students. Since the budget, I have tried to build further on this investment. I have managed to bring some improvements to the staffing schedule for some small schools at primary level.

I have also found the resources to better support children with Down’s syndrome, an issue brought directly to my attention in meetings with parents of children with Down’s syndrome and Down Syndrome Ireland. Last month, I was able to announce that I have secured a further €50 million to complete the summer works projects which started last year and to provide €36 million in funding to a further 559 schools this year to replace their windows, fix their science labs or playgrounds.

These increases to the budget are welcome but I know they are not enough. We will never deliver all of the investment that education needs at one time. I will always, however, be a passionate advocate for further investment in education. We must have priorities and focus first on the areas that will best deliver for young people. Over the coming months, I want to work with all education partners, as well as Members, to devise a coherent strategy for investment in education.

As the Tánaiste said this morning, in this year's budget we also made provision for more nurses and we are recruiting new gardaí for the first time since the collapse of the economy. Those of us in the Labour Party are enthusiastic proponents of quality, well-financed public services.

The crisis greatly reduced the scope to improve services. It was a case of protecting them as best as we possibly could while fighting to regain our economic sovereignty, but we are in a different and much more positive space now. As we return to financial good health, I look forward to making greater progress in improving public services in the next few years.

One of the main drivers behind this investment is demographic change. Put simply, we have more older people who require care, more young people who require schools and more children who require child care. It is patently obvious that €1.2 billion to €1.5 billion will not allow us to do all we would like this year. Having said that, the forecasts in the spring statement make clear that if we continue to manage the economy responsibly, we can look forward to similar improvements in years to come. This will see a gradual but clear improvement in our public services and in our standard of living.

As the Minister, Deputy Howlin, made clear yesterday, we in the Labour Party take the view that reducing unemployment remains the best route to recovery. Increased employment broadens the tax base and allows investment in public services. I made that point at the beginning of my contribution, in response to Deputy Coppinger.

By continuing to get people back to work we make our recovery sustainable. Live register figures published today show our continuing progress on this front. Irish people want to work. This has been a central focus of this Government's efforts. We are now starting to reap the benefits. Employment has increased in every quarter for over two years and we expect this trend to continue. Almost 100,000 new jobs have been created since the low-point in mid-2012.

We are achieving success through a range of measures, including the Action Plan for Jobs, the Pathways to Work Strategy and investment in key capital projects such as social housing. Tackling long-term unemployment will remain our key focus. The Government is certainly putting more focus on that area. A certain number of people have been unemployed for a long time and, indeed, their families may have a tradition of long-term unemployment. We need to break that cycle of joblessness.

The Pathways to Work programme supports almost 260,000 places with 85,000 of these reserved specifically for the long-term unemployed. In budget 2015, we doubled the number of positions on the JobsPlus scheme to 6,000 encouraging employers to hire the long-term unemployed. In my own Department, the number of trainee apprentices has risen significantly over the last two years, with an additional €10 million being invested in such opportunities this year.

Not only is the headline unemployment rate important, but we must also increase employment throughout the country for all groups in our society. With this in mind, we introduced the back to work family dividend in the last budget.

A related issue is child care and I am delighted that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy Reilly, is sitting beside me. A successful child care policy helps people who wish to do so to participate in the economy. The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs has established a working group on this issue and, as Minister for Education and Skills, I am represented on that group. I look forward to examining the outcomes from that group and to building further on the work we are doing this year to introduce education-focused inspections in pre-school settings.

The publication of the spring economic statement yesterday represents another significant reform to the budgetary process in Ireland. It is my pleasure to support the publication of this important statement.

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