Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the debate. Everyone will agree that there have been tough times for education as there have been for other sectors throughout the economy. The education system in Ireland has been extraordinarily resilient during those times. It has taught more children at primary, secondary and third level with reduced resources. Deputy Thomas Byrne and others rightly pointed out that we have had, one might say, a lost decade. It was not quite a decade but approaching a decade in which investment has been below level. It will continue with financial pressures. We need to be smarter in the way we do things. I hope we can repair the damage while also having ambitions to do things in new ways. That is part of what I would like to see done.

Deputy Thomas Byrne raised his concern that we are investing in the concept of technological universities before we have the legislation. To be fair, this has a long history; it is long before my time here. The DIT has developed a project with Blanchardstown and Tallaght that is at a very advanced stage. They are keen to move ahead. Everyone engaged is fully committed and sees it as a win-win. Cork and Tralee have also developed their projects. Waterford and Carlow are developing projects.

This is not a new idea. While the legislation is very important, the concept is something that has broadly been seen as important to regional development. To take up the Deputy's point, it is not about shutting off access in particular locations and consolidating all into one centre at the loss of others. It is to allow a system that may be stretched and challenged to retain its best traditions while also setting new ambition. I look forward to working with the Deputy on this. We are committed to stakeholder engagement on the issue so that when we move back into Committee Stage we can hopefully have a much better understanding of different perspectives.

Deputy Cullinane and others raised the issues of the differential in pay. I recognise that this is a problem. It is a legacy of the crash and it occurred in every part of the public service. Contrary to what Deputy Connolly said, Deputies are also paid different amounts depending on their recruitment. This is an issue. There will be a pay commission, which will give an opportunity to look at this and develop ways because we need to retain our capacity to attract the very best people into education.

Deputy Burton raised her concern that the capital programme had gone off track. At the end of May it was pretty much on the mark at 98.5% of profile. So it is slightly below. We intend to spend all the money that will be available to us. The Department's building unit - perhaps this is part of the frustration - has developed projects and is trying to ensure we spend everything we have and be in a position to have the pipeline to do so. I will look into the particular schools she mentioned.

A number of Deputies talked about the importance of DEIS and the ambition to change. I recognise the frustration that some schools have been outside it and it has not been reviewed in several years. The purpose of the review is to look at not just that issue of whether some schools are left out, but also the quality of the programmes and whether we could do better within the DEIS schools.

The benchmarking of numeracy, which was mentioned by Deputy Connolly, is an important issue.

Deputy Michael Collins raised the issue of middle management. To be fair to the former Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, the Estimate she produced contains a provision for 250 teacher posts to try to bolster the middle-management tier. There is no doubt that leadership in our schools will be very important.

A number of people spoke about guidance. I know that is a particular concern of Deputy Thomas Byrne and his party. The budget produced by the former Minister, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan, included a restoration of the pupil-teacher ratio at post-primary level, albeit not ex quota, but nonetheless with guidelines being issued to the schools to deploy this in guidance. While putting guidance ex quota impacted on the provision of guidance as is evident, it is interesting that a significant level of guidance was protected by schools. Hopefully we can meet the ambitions that those have raised.

I share Deputy Rabbitte's point of view on the need for a stronger digital strategy within the educational system and hopefully we can do that.

Deputy Fitzpatrick has gone, but I will talk to him separately.

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