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

I thank the Deputies for raising this issue and for their interest in the education area. Reading between the lines of what they have said, they can understand the difficulties I am facing. They mentioned pay restoration, time off for principals, investment in leadership, minor works and smaller class sizes. These are all needs I would like to be able to address. This year, I had €550 million across all education budgets. Half of that money - €240 million - went on pay restoration so that was the first thing. That was partly contributing to the restoration of pay for new entrants and, of course, the general increases in pay. I paid out the minor works grant last year. That comes to €5,000 for every school plus €18 per head on top of that.

There is no doubt that starting to put money back into capitation grants is something I have the ambition to do but I must set priorities. To be honest, the priorities I set were reducing class sizes, providing 1,500 additional teachers for children with special educational needs and starting the investment in school leadership. I have made a significant investment. A total of 1,000 principals this year will get support. I have also made provision this year for more time off for those principals in smaller schools. Depending on the size of the school, I have added between two and four days extra time off to allow those principals time to plan. In addition, there will be 50 clusters where schools can combine to employ one person who would be available to avoid the problem of finding substitution by those principals. That would be relevant, particularly in areas with a more dispersed population. Capitation is in two parts currently.

There is €170 per pupil, plus a further ancillary payment of €153 per pupil. The ancillary payment has gone up by €16, which reflects salary increases in arbitration awards, but the overall base amount has not gone up. I have also made other changes designed to help schools to better manage their resources. For example, the schools procurement unit has saved some €2 million per year across all schools in each of the last three years. Total capitation payments to primary schools amount to some €205 million and the payment is making a significant contribution to addressing costs.

I have dealt with the issue of voluntary contributions. It is important to point out that such contributions must be voluntary and that there cannot be compulsion to pay for mainstream activities.

I believe the Deputies appreciate that we are recovering from a difficult time. I have to make choices and believe most Deputies would defend the choices I made to reduce class sizes in primary schools, start the process of restoring pay for newly qualified entrants and make particular provision for children with special needs, a measure which has involved nearly 3,000 additional SNAs. Overall, over 6,000 additional teachers have been provided and supported in the last couple of years. Moreover, we are seeking to meet these needs at a time when there is a rapidly growing school population.

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