Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I too welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, particularly the long overdue amendment to the Education Act 1998. Parents and students need consistency, openness and transparency. A charter between schools, students and parents is a step towards achieving this. I am concerned the guidelines that limit the scope of this charter are too narrow. I understand there is provision for the Minister to consult education partners, the Ombudsman for Children and such other Ministers, bodies or persons considered appropriate before making the guidelines. I urge the Minister to ensure there is consultation with the National Parents Council, student representative bodies and teachers' unions to ensure their voices are heard.

Sinn Féin has proposed an important amendment to this Bill seeking to regulate the publicly available information on how much money is collected by schools through voluntary contributions. I am aware some of my colleagues also spoke about voluntary contributions. Education should be free. It is outrageous that schools rely on these contributions to remain open. Some schools use the voluntary contributions to pay for basics such as electricity and oil bills due to underfunding through reduced capitation grants. In this regard, no data are made available to the Department of Education. We believe it is important the Department would have access to those data and that they should be published so we know how much is collected by the schools annually. The amendment will inform parents of the amount of money being collected and the purposes for which it is spent. It will also, for the first time, inform us of the shortfall in funding. This is an important step in the direction of abolishing voluntary contributions in schools.

As of now, we are unaware of how much is collected annually. Despite being called "voluntary", the contributions are often far from that, with some schools in dire need of these funds due to under-resourcing. A recent survey suggests parents contribute €40 million per annum, but the truth is we do not know the amount. We need to be able to access that information. I have been told of multiple requests of struggling parents for this supposedly voluntary contribution. Many parents have told me they feel shamed into paying it. This is wrong. No child should be discriminated against due to the inability of parents to pay this contribution. Parents should be fully informed of the voluntary nature of the contribution.

As we are speaking about the future of education, I must mention the lack of school places in my constituency of Kildare South. I have been contacted by several parents who do not know what school their child will attend in two months' time. This is Third World stuff. We are living in one of the richest countries in the world. We need joined-up thinking and a plan for the population growth we are experiencing. Monasterevin has waited 20 years for a new secondary school. I am delighted to note it is in progress but I am afraid it will be above capacity when completed. A new build for Coláiste Íosagáin in Portarlington is at preliminary design stage. Newbridge and Kildare town need new schools as well. The wheels are moving too slowly and urgent action is needed now to prevent a looming crisis. Fine Gael and the Labour Party in government imposed cuts of €130 million in the education area in 2012. Capital spend, which included several large infrastructure projects, was cut by €750 million. This is when we should have been investing in education to stop the brain drain. Sinn Féin in government will reverse these savage cuts. We need to invest in the future and I sincerely hope we will.

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