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

It is in both the programme for Government and the confidence and supply agreement that we will address capitation over the lifetime of the Government. In the first two budgets we gave priority to areas such as special education, the provision of SNAs, the reduction of the pupil-teacher ratio and support for disadvantaged schools and we have to make decisions within the available resources to prioritise the areas where we feel the greatest pressure is. I fully recognise that capitation is posing a problem for schools and we will be examining it in the context of the forthcoming budget.

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