Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour) | Oireachtas source

However, I wish to return to the point I was making. Thankfully, I was lucky enough when I was appointed Minister for Education and Skills to receive a slight increase in my budget in my two years as Minister. I was able to make some progress, even a little progress on small schools. That was after consultation with the INTO. In particular, we were able to make progress on class sizes. That was because we had finally sorted out the country's finances, to some extent. We made some progress, which is why I am so disappointed that progress was not continued this year. Class size makes a real difference for children.

There also could have been progress on capitation. Our proposal in that regard was very good. We proposed that schools which got rid of the voluntary contribution should get a bigger increase in capitation that those that did not. That would take the pressure off hard-pressed parents who, in many cases, feel forced to pay this so-called voluntary contribution and find it difficult to do so. There could have been that progress on capitation.

I welcome the increase in the number of teachers and SNAs. However, I am concerned. There are probably enough teachers to cover the demographics both among the teachers and in resource teachers, but I am concerned about the number of extra SNAs. I do not believe there will be enough. Last year, I got the Government's approval for an extra 610 SNAs, but we had to add an extra 100 for the first six months of this year. We had to make provision last year for that. I believe the little over 100 extra SNAs provided for in the budget will not be enough. That will have to be monitored. We also made more restoration in guidance last year than what is being provided for this year. I welcome that there is further progress on that, but the point should be made that we added more numbers last year.

We were criticised by Sinn Féin as well with regard to cuts. I attended the INTO teachers' conference in 2015. People with placards were there protesting against education cuts. The INTO is an all-island union and their protest was against the Sinn Féin Minister of Education in Northern Ireland, not against me.

See this speech in context