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

The issue of capitation will, of course, be considered in the context of the forthcoming budget. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase capitation, so it is something we intend to do. I appreciate that capitation has been cut back in recent years and, unlike many things, has not been restored. It goes towards the running costs of schools and I would be very much in favour of an increase in capitation if we could find provision for it within what is left to us in the forthcoming budget.

It is important, though, never to lose sight of the wider picture. This year, we will spend €10 billion on education, more than any Government has spent in any year since the foundation of the State. What does this mean in practice? It means we have been able to hire 5,000 extra teachers in the past two years. It means we will have the lowest pupil-teacher ratio ever from this August and September. It means we now have 15,000 special needs assistants, more than we have gardaí, for example, even though Garda numbers are increasing. In fact, we now spend more on special education than we do on third level education, and funding for the latter is now being restored as well as a consequence of budget decisions made. A massive school building programme is happening all over the country, which Deputies will know from their constituency work.

However, it is not possible to do everything, or everything one would like to do, in one year. This is why we must prioritise. What we have prioritised in recent years is new, more modern school buildings; additional teachers; a lower pupil-teacher ratio; the introduction of new subjects at leaving certificate - physical education and computer science, for example; the restoration of funding to our universities; the introduction of two years of free preschool education; and other measures, including subsidised childcare. We have seen enormous progress in the short recovery we have had in recent years in all these areas. I absolutely accept that capitation will have to be considered as part of this. However, as I said before and will say again, it is never possible to do everything one would like to do in one year and we need to be prudent.

I have seen the kinds of promises Fianna Fáil is making. It has made promises adding up to €1.6 billion just in recent months. We all know that on budget day the budget package will allow us to increase spending by approximately €3.4 billion, but €2.6 billion of this is already committed in part to measures in education, given the fact that there will be more pupils and that we need to build more schools. However, the fact that Fianna Fáil's promises add up to €1.6 billion when the discretionary package is approximately €800 million means that a reasonable person cannot have any confidence that the promises Fianna Fáil is making in respect of education or anything else can be believed.

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