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

Deputy Mattie McGrath will remember what it was like because he participated in the Government that led to it. The creation of jobs was a priority. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has just referred to the 130,000 real jobs created since 2012. That had to be done and people across the country had to make enormous sacrifices for us to achieve that. Those people deserve to get the benefits of a recovering economy, which is what this budget is essentially about.

The economy is not an end in itself. We also need to repair the social fabric of our country. The budget does a lot to realise that. Essentially, the era of cuts is over and we can look forward to investment in social services in areas like education. It is not just investing in what was done before. We also need to accompany that with reform of the way we do things. This is very much part of what my predecessor and I have been doing in the area of education. I have always believed, and have often argued, that investment in education is an economic, social and moral imperative. When I was appointed Minister for Education and Skills, we faced a potential reduction in our budget in 2015 of €39 million but working with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, we managed to get an increase of €60 million last year. That allowed us to invest in some of the reforms that are necessary to deliver a modern, fit-for-purpose education for every child. Over the past 12 months, I have been determined to build on that first increase in education spending in recent years. The budget yesterday succeeded in that ambition. In 2016, an additional €144 million will be invested in education. The figure quoted by Deputy O'Brien related to the new proposals regarding the pupil-teacher ratio and one other, but he did not include the ongoing reforms. For example, he did not include the extra funding for junior cycle reform, the school book rental scheme, literacy and numeracy reform, the new apprenticeships we announced and the technological universities. These are just some of them. I will go into the detail of some of those later on. That is why Deputy O'Brien's figure differs from our figure. The additional investment in education is actually €144 million this year.

My priority for additional investment has been to see smaller classes introduced at primary level. Budget 2016 will deliver this important measure. We have reduced class size back to the smallest class size we have ever had. This is the start of our ambition and a new push to bring class sizes down over a number of years. It is worth noting that even in the most difficult budgets of recent years, this Government protected class size. The only recent cut was done by those on the Opposition benches. I think Deputy Mattie McGrath might have been supporting Fianna Fáil at the time. The measures introduced in this budget will bring down average class sizes from 28 to 27. It will begin the process of putting an end to classes of over 30 children.

I have said previously that no class should contain more than 30 children and that average class sizes should fall below 25 over the coming years. The move in this direction this year will require approximately 300 additional teaching posts. Additional teachers will also be provided at post-primary level. A total of 550 new teaching posts will be provided and I expect more than half of these will be used to improve guidance counselling support in schools. This will be done by reducing the pupil-teacher ratio from 19:1 to 18.7:1 for most schools and from 18.25:1 to 17.95.1 for disadvantaged schools. While schools will have the autonomy to use this additional staffing in accordance with their needs, we are very conscious of the need for appropriate guidance counselling to be available to every student. In fairness, I know that the Opposition is in agreement with that. A new circular on guidance will issue in the spring and this will underpin the responsibility of every school to make sure it uses this additional staffing to meet their obligations to provide guidance counselling support to all students. As Members will know, the Institute of Guidance Counsellors has been a very effective advocate for increased guidance resources and I welcome its support for this measure.

A total of 250 of these additional post-primary posts will also be used to enhance the role of deputy principals in schools with less than 500 students. Strengthening leadership is schools is an important agenda. It might not grab the headlines. Indeed, additional resources in this regard often go unnoticed outside the school community but supporting leadership in schools has many positive benefits for students, teachers and other school staff. Part of the allocation will allow deputy principals to reduce their teaching time and focus on leadership and management. It will also provide additional release days to teaching principals in primary schools. This is positive news for school leaders and school leadership and it builds on the work already done this year in establishing the Centre for School Leadership, which I announced earlier in the year. These changes build upon the significant investment required to meet demographic growth in schools. Next year alone, almost 14,000 additional students will be enrolled in our schools. A total of 810 additional teachers are being provided to meet this additional number of children and young people. Similarly, a further 600 additional resource teachers have been provided to support additional children with special education needs.

As I said earlier, investment must go hand-in-hand with reform. One area where the Government has driven reform is the area of apprenticeships. Ireland has a world-class reputation in terms of our skilled craftspeople. We regularly win top international competitions and did so very recently. I congratulate those students. Unfortunately, this national talent is often overlooked and does not receive the attention and celebration it deserves. I want to see that change. I will ensure that the apprenticeship model is extended to growing sectors of the economy. We expect at least 4,000 additional apprentices to begin training next year. Apprenticeships offer a high-quality career path for young people leaving school. The apprenticeship model, which up until now was largely focused on the construction trades, is now being expanded into new career sectors such as financial services, travel, tourism and hospitality and other areas, such as HGV drivers.

These apprenticeships will come on stream in 2016 and will be supported by more than €10 million in funding.

This is an important reform that the Minister of State, Deputy Damien English, and I worked hard to deliver. I received support for this initiative from Members across the floor of this House, including Deputy Jonathan O'Brien, who is here today. Technological universities will bring industry-connected university level education to regions around Ireland. Three consortia have reached the final phase of moving to become technological universities in the south, south east and the Dublin area. These consortia will next year benefit from additional funding. A total of €2 million is being made available to develop technological universities in Dublin, Munster and the south east. A further €3 million is being made available to invest in the student assistance fund and more generally for supporting disadvantaged students. More funding will be needed for the higher and further education and training sectors over the coming years. The expert group, chaired by Mr. Peter Cassells, will report at the end of the year. That report will outline options for funding higher education in the future and I will publish it as soon as it becomes available.

SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority, has begun reviewing the opportunities available in the further education and training sector. This sector has been neglected but I want to ensure that we shine more light on it in the future because it really does provide opportunities for people to get meaningful, strong careers. I have met many people in the further education colleges around the country who are benefitting from those opportunities. SOLAS will complete a review of post-leaving certificate courses next spring and then move on to examine other opportunities in further education and training. As it carries out that work I will support it, just as I have by prioritising investment in apprenticeships today.

We have achieved a great deal in reforming education in recent years. Budget 2016 will ensure that we can continue this important work. This year we saw the first improvement in reading and mathematics in a generation, results due in part at least to our successful literacy and numeracy strategy. I am delighted to continue funding the implementation of that strategy with an allocation of €17 million, an increase of €3 million compared with this year. Reform of junior cycle will also continue with an €8 million increase in funding of this reform bringing the total allocation up to €17 million. This funding will be used for teacher training, giving teachers professional time to engage with the reforms and for curriculum development. I am pleased to inform the House that continuing professional development for junior cycle will begin in the coming weeks. The first phase will focus on the education and training board, ETB, sector where the Teachers Union of Ireland, TUI represents most teachers.

I have provided €2.5 million in funding in 2016 to replace the philanthropic funding which has been raised to promote music to children through Music Generation. We are investing €9 million to ensure the high-speed broadband, which has been installed in all post-primary schools, thanks to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy White, is available to them free of charge.

On top of these important areas this year I have secured €2 million in funding to support new curriculums, which includes the revised primary languages curriculum and the roll-out of politics and society as a new leaving certificate subject. It will also support the revised curriculums for art, design and communications for leaving certificate. I am also providing the final tranche of €5 million in a three-year additional investment in the school books fund which does relieve some of the pressure on parents with regard to the cost of education.

A minor works grant will issue to all primary and special schools in November, totalling €28.5 million. There will also be a summer works scheme over 2016 and 2017, for which funding of €80 million has been allowed.

I commend the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Deputy James Reilly, for what has been achieved in early years education. We have been working closely with him on this issue and I commend him particularly for his support for children with special needs. We see education as a continuum and early years are extremely important. I am delighted we have been able to achieve significant progress in the education budget.

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