Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I know they are unchanged but we are in the sixth month of the financial year. We should have been able to get these in the middle of March but this was not possible. However, we should then have been able to get them almost immediately following the formation of the Government and yet they were published this morning. I note in the book we were offered that there are only four Votes, which is the first time I have seen this. The Minister can say because he is in government that he is aware that there is no change to the Estimates but nobody has told anybody else that.

I refer to the legacy of the previous two Ministers for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan and Ruairí Quinn. The huge increase in the recruitment of teachers was most welcome both last year and this year once the financial resources of the State had begun to recover. I listened to the contributions of Sinn Féin Members. The party's education Minister in the North said at a meeting of student teachers that they should not look to him for jobs because they were unable to recruit anybody there. It is a great achievement of the previous Government that there was significant additional recruitment in 2015 and 2016 unlike in the North where current students of education have been told by their Minister that there will not be any jobs. It is important that Members recognise the important achievements that have been secured.

What is the agreement with the Department for Public Expenditure and Reform regarding the capital budget or is it stalled? Could the Minister give us an indication as to when the rebuilding of the two schools I mentioned will commence? In the previous Government, the Labour Party prioritised the development of a new apprenticeship structure with a huge number of apprentices to be recruited. The programme for Government cut the number from the 50,000 proposed by the Labour Party to 31,000. I have never understood the reason for that reduction. How is that progressing given we are more than five months into the financial year?

I welcome the commitment to additional SNAs. Will they be recruited within existing resources or are additional resources being provided?

I was the first person to propose to the Taoiseach some weeks ago that in respect of the difficulties currently besetting the north inner city in Dublin, a task force should be established and a key element of it should be focused on education. The Minister attended last night's meeting in Sheriff Street with the Taoiseach and I would like him to outline the additional educational resources that will be devoted to that city centre and the north inner city.

Dublin West is experiencing an extraordinary coming together of different patrons, faiths and people who to not practise any particular faith in a movement where every child is welcome. I am disturbed by the Minister's comments about his approach to community national schools.

I hope I misheard or misread the Minister's intention, namely, that the idea is perhaps to segregate children in regard to different elements of religious or ethical education. That would be a really bad move.

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