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

The aim for budget 2019, as it has been in previous years, is to deliver progressively on the commitments set out in the action plan for education, the programme for Government and the confidence and supply agreement. I have set out four key areas where I am seeking to make improvements so that Ireland becomes a leader in Europe. The first is to improve the quality of the learning experience. The second is to increase our capacity to meet the needs of those at a disadvantage or with special needs so that they can meet their potential. The third area of focus is the environment for schools to be innovative and continuously improve their capacity to serve their pupils' needs. The final area is the building of bridges between education and training institutions and the wider community, including enterprise, culture and public services, to meet the changing needs of our country. I will be seeking to address these four areas as we prepare the budget.

I will be building on the significant investment we have made over the past two budgets, where an additional €1 billion was provided in 2017 and 2018, bringing our investment in education to €10 billion. That has delivered thousands of additional teachers and special needs assistants, a re-investment in higher education, the expansion of apprenticeships and traineeships and a range of new policy initiatives to enhance innovation and improve education and training outcomes for our learners. It has enabled us to implement the public service pay deal in the education and training sector and to bring down class sizes at primary level.

In looking at the competing demands for the next budget, I must have regard to the resources available to Government in the context of the need to meet our fiscal commitments and for the prudent management of the economy. That will be set out by the Minister for Finance in his summer economic statement. It will be against that background that I formulate specific budgetary priorities.

The Deputy will know that I have made provision this year for elements of pay restoration for newly qualified teachers, with a payment made from 1 January. The Minister for Finance has recently initiated a wider talks process on new entrant pay across the whole public service. I recognise that capitation is an area of pressure and will be looking at it in the context of the forthcoming budget. An increase in capitation is included in the programme for Government and I will be assessing that option. As in other years, there will be a lot of competing demands but I will endeavour to be as fair as possible.

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