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

What we needed this year was a budget with vision and ambition and this is not what we got. There are so many areas where the potential for fundamental change and a radical shift in policy were missed. There is nothing at all for renters and a wholly inadequate response to our waiting lists. There is a complete failure to deal with childcare costs.

I welcome that the campaigners for fairness for childcare workers have secured progress here, and I have long supported that, but parents will still be paying a second mortgage or rent with no relief.

This is not the budget we needed or wanted. Workers and families will still be at the pin of their collar.

While I acknowledge there are positives as regards education, this budget does not show the ambition needed to transform our education system in order to make it properly free. We are meant to have a free education system. There are no steps to tackle the cost of schoolbooks for parents. We are two budgets in. There is a commitment in the programme for Government to deliver this but there has been nothing at all in the budget about it for two years in a row. Over the past two months, parents have received letters asking for €200, €300 or €400 in voluntary contributions. Schools are profoundly underfunded. They are raising funds and looking for these contributions to keep the lights on. There is effectively nothing in this budget that will address the minimal capitation increase to one very particular type of secondary school and the fact there is no increase at all at primary school level. The costs are still falling on parents just to keep the schools running. They are meant to be paying for this through their taxes.

It is, of course, welcome that more schools are getting hot meals, but it is disappointing that only schools that applied in 2020, not this year, will be able to avail of this. Our ambition should be that every DEIS school should be able to get hot meals. We are so far behind other countries when it comes to this. We need to push on very radically from this.

I acknowledge the significant investment in special education, which is something we have been very keen to see and have regularly highlighted to the Minister of State. I hope this is put to good effect and I hope the Minister of State can deliver on it because some commitments in last year's budget were not delivered in full. Children with special educational needs were significantly impacted by the lockdowns. They undoubtedly need additional support and attention at this time. While the additional special education teachers in this budget are welcome, I hope they will not simply be used to fill gaps due to the substitution crisis, as is currently the case. One thing we definitely need to address is the issue of banked hours. I hope the Minister of State gives that her attention.

I will also highlight - the Minister of State will probably be very aware of this because demographics mean it is likely to be an issue in her constituency - that new and developing schools are not getting a fair crack of the whip when it comes to allocations. That needs to be addressed when these resources are allocated.

The expansion of DEIS is another welcome point. The Minister of State and the Minister have heard me say previously that every Deputy with an interest in education is passionate about DEIS. I urge the Minister of State to allow the Opposition to help because it has a lot of wisdom and observations that can help to shape whatever new criteria come forth. A consultation is meant to be going on but, when I talk to the education partners, the level of consultation is not very deep at this point. That needs to change. Principals and Deputies need to be able to feed into this. An awful lot of wisdom and many constructive suggestions can be used to ensure this welcome additional allocation is allocated correctly.

The pupil-teacher ratio is being reduced but we would have looked for a two-point reduction. If we keep reducing it at this pace, it will be 2026 or 2027 before we reach the EU average. That should be our objective, especially when you look at the demographic shape that things are taking.

There are certainly things I am disappointed with. Core funding for schools might not be the most exciting headline but it is vitally important. Our schools are underfunded and we need to address that next year. I welcome the increase in special education teachers. We need to tackle the cost to parents of books and things like that. I will emphasise again that DEIS band 2 was a big absence in the last round of DEIS. There is an awful lot we can add to that to ensure it reaches the right target.

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