Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is always a case of having to prioritise, as Deputies will appreciate. The education budget this year is €10 billion, the highest education budget in the history of the State. What does that mean in practice? It means 5,000 more teachers than we had two years ago. It means we now have 15,000 SNAs, so there are more SNAs in Ireland than gardaí, even though the number of gardaí is increasing as well. It means new school buildings throughout the country. It means new subjects, like physical education and computer science at the leaving certificate, for example. Extra money, in education at least, is resulting in real improvements.

We were not able to provide for an increase in capitation in the budget for this year as the priority was additional staff, reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and all the things I mentioned, but it is certainly something that is under consideration for budget 2019. As is always the case, however, it is not good enough for Opposition parties just to demand more spending on everything everywhere. We need to prioritise. If the priority for next year is going to be capitation, obviously, that makes it hard to do other things.

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