Anne Rabbitte (Galway East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish the Minister all the best in his role. To continue from where the Minister's colleague finished, I had three lots of speeches and I was deciding where to start. I am addressing the revised edition but I think I will start with the capitation programme for the future. I plead with the Minister to reconsider this and, for the period 2017 to 2019, to consider front-loading the programme for building schools. I am no different from my colleague across the House in that I am under pressure in east Galway on a regular basis from constituents in the likes of Bullaun, where the school is still operating out of prefabs. It is on the building programme but the building programme is almost turning into a health and safety issue at the moment. There are three schools in Athenry and one in Tuam on the building programme as well. Anyway, if the Minister would consider front-loading the programme, it would be greatly appreciated.

I welcome the reduction in class sizes and the allocation of the extra teachers and SNAs. I believe the programme based around apprenticeships is vital for this economy to progress and there is no better place to start than with the role of apprenticeships.

The ETBs are extremely well positioned to do that and have done it for some years. The 25 additional apprenticeship courses coming on stream are really appreciated. We need to look back to the traditional courses of block-laying and roofing as well as looking to the ESB and the OPW. We have a set body of State-funded employers that could give these opportunities to the young people who want to avail of apprenticeships.

Regarding ETBs and further education, I was very disheartened to discover that last year that the GRETB had to return an amount of money it could not spend on further adult education as a result of the staffing embargo. That ETB did not have the staff to deliver the courses but had the funding to do so. There does not seem to be a balance. I ask the Government to try to restore that equilibrium. It is evident that the ETB had the funding but it returning the money because it did not have the staff to deliver it was very disheartening for those working in the ETB.

When talking about the ETBs we also need to talk about the ICT services they provide. SOLAS, FÁS and the ETBs have come together successfully, particularly in the context of the GRETB in my area. They have actually pulled it all together with no staff. The one part that is really stretched is the infrastructure around ICT.

I can also talk about ICT in the national schools. The national schools have computers but do not have the support mechanisms to bring them online. That is another issue. If a national school has an ETB nearby it has that access to resources. However, many rural schools do not have that support. Geography should not come into it and all children in education should be equal. That is not the case because geography plays a huge part in all this. This is something we will have to look at and broadband of course comes into this.

Apart from broadband, the next issue that is crucifying rural areas - a number of Deputies spoke about it earlier this evening - is that which relates to how school transport is gauged. We have to move away from looking at it from the satellite. The satellite currently takes dirt tracks rather than roads into account when the position is being assessed. One Deputy referred to the distance measured in kilometres. School buses are passing people by at present. A student who lives at the wrong part of the triangle on a school bus route can lose out. A student living in Claregalway who wants to travel to the new school in Galway might be sent over to Headford and be obliged to go 5 km up the other side of the road to try to catch the bus. This does not make sense, particularly when the bus passes his or her front door in the first instance.

Having said that, I welcome what is before us. I think we are going in the right direction. We want to invest correctly in education because children represent the future. We need to give them the broadband, the school buses and the schools in which to be taught well.

See this speech in context