Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Regardless of which sector or group comes into Leinster House, when they come back six years later to say that not only does the problem remain, it has actually got worse, any Minister worth their salt would sit up and pay attention to what these people are saying because that is exactly what happened last week. It does not need to be like this. This is the real irritation and the crux of the issue. The Government is quick to tell us that it is going to run a surplus of €8 billion. Clearly, what is missing here is the political will. Seven out of ten primary schools have run a deficit at some stage in the past 12 months. Schools report that the cost of heating has risen by more than 37%. Electricity costs have increased by 35% and insurance by 19%, on average, during the same period. These are the results from the Catholic Primary School Management Association, CPMSA, survey carried out in April. I give credit to the CPMSA for the work it does in trying to identify, isolate and label these gaps in funding in our schools. More than half of the respondents said their schools had to fundraise to pay for basic utilities. Almost three quarters of schools said they would not have enough money to pay their ancillary staff for the year. They also said they are unable to budget due to the lack of clarity about when and if some grants will be paid. I have raised the issue of the financial support services unit, FSSU, schedule before. When the OECD says that Ireland spends, on average, 12.5% less per student at primary level than other developed countries, the Minister's response is to question the method used by the OECD to establish that figure. This is simply not good enough. Principals, teachers and school staff tell me they are drowning as a result of the Government's failure to prioritise education. They tell me that they are trying their absolute hardest. I see this in the schools I go to, including my own children's school. How the staff keep the show on the road mystifies me at times, but they do. They go in every day and do their absolute damnedest for the kids in those classrooms. At the same time, I judge that against a principal who told me they actually did not know how they were going to pay a bill for getting rid of an infestation in the school. They did not have the money in the bank account. They did not know where it was going to come from. If the bill was not paid and the infestation not dealt with, the school would have to close. None of the children at that school deserved to be in that position. The question being asked time and again of the Government from across the country is when will there be proper funding and supports given to schools and teachers in order to ensure not only that schools can stay afloat but to put them in a position to enable the children who attend five days a week to thrive in an environment where they can succeed and reach their full potential. Without that, we know the knock-on effects that appear. We see them in our communities. Our children feel the effects in educational disadvantage and a loss of well-being. It is a vicious cycle.

The independent analysis of primary and post-primary school funding has to be an absolute priority. There is no such thing as free education in this country. It is a myth and there is a considerable way to go until we get to that constitutional right for children to have the education they need. For that to happen, the Government needs to step up and ascertain where the gaps are in the funding and take meaningful and effective steps to address each and every one of them. Yes, there needs to be smaller class sizes and the capitation grant needs to increase in line with the cost of living. Ancillary, ICT and digitisation grants need to be fit for purpose. A grant schedule that is published and adhered to does not appear to me to be an ask of principals outside the realm of basic expectations.

For us to properly fund our education system, we need to have not only significant funding; we also need effective funding. That means identifying where the problems are. In the brief time I have left I will identify one of these problems, namely, the school book grant. Like most parents who have children finishing up this year, I now have in my possession two lists of items that will not be covered by the school book grant. The Government failed to fund it at a proper level last year and then took the decision to reduce the funding this year. These are not notiony items. These are calculators, A4 folders, pens, pencils and erasers. They are also very basic items that a child would need to be educated in a classroom these days. They also include educational resources such as Jolly Phonics, Oxford Reading Tree, Mathletics and Spellings for Me. None of these will be covered by the grant this year. The Government took a decision to reduce the grant to such an extent that principals were sending parents emails in the run-up to the local elections asking them to make it an election issue and to put it to the candidates from Government parties on the doorsteps that this needed to be reversed. Is it any wonder that Fianna Fáil lost more than 30 seats?

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