Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

To suggest class sizes have been protected under the Government is an insult to every teacher, principal, child and parent in the country. Class sizes have not been protected by the Government, as well the Minister knows. I will ask the question one more time. I accept the argument about one-off non-recurring payments and I did hear it. Nonetheless, the Minister had €1.5 billion available and education is the single biggest driver of economic stability and growth to ensure equality of opportunity for children. Of the figure of €1.5 billion, the Minister decided that €24 million was enough to allocate to the education system, but €561 million was an adequate amount to give by way of a tax cut. Why does he believe he should only allocate an additional €24 million from the figure of €1.5 billion as opposed to more than €560 million through one tax cut?

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