Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the increase in the minor works grant but that will not do it for every school. Not every school can convert a room or make extra space within a classroom. The grant will deal with issues such as hot water also, and that is welcome, but it will not satisfy every need. I believe the Minister knows that. For schools in that position, the undertaking they will have to make in the next few weeks is so enormous that we cannot simply refer to local solutions and so on. There is a need for local solutions but far too often the issue is the response of the Department of Education and Skills. There is an element of throw the ball in and leave the board of management and the school at it. Space will need to be found. Buildings will need to be found. Temporary accommodation will need to be put in and it does not appear that the Department knows the location of that. An audit needs to be done very quickly. I will give the Minister an example of a school in my constituency, which was built in 1961. Two thirds of the classrooms are under 50 m and approximately one third of them are under 40 m. Some of them are only 18 m, 20 m and 25 m. Schools like that do not have a clue how they will manage this requirement.

My final point is that there is a programme for Government commitment to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio. We put down a motion on that on Tuesday night and the Minister has hardly commented on it. We are in the middle of a pandemic that has underlined the danger in having oversized classrooms. Does the Minister intend to tackle pupil-teacher ratios in this budget? Does she intend to reduce oversized classes? That needs to happen for social distancing and safety but for educational reasons also.

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