Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Under the Government, the higher education system has seen cuts of 20% per student; there has been a 15% cut in the number of resource teachers since 2012; we have the second highest class sizes in the European Union; more than half of teachers under the age of 30 years are on short-term, part-time and substitute contracts; and there has been a 25% cut in funding for DEIS schools since 2010. Page 3 of the Minister's budget document lays out in black and white that of the €1.5 billion available at a time of fiscal and economic expansion and in the context of all of the cuts at all of these levels of education, the total amount for new expenditure measures is €24 million. This is in contrast with the figure of €561 million for a reduction in USC. Similarly, on the next page of the Minister's budget document, we see that gross current expenditure will increase by €44 million, while gross voted capital expenditure will decrease by €73 million. The net impact on the Department of Education and Skills, according to the Minister's budget document, is minus €29 million. Why has the Minister done this in the context of a decision to allocate more than €560 million through one tax cut?

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