Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I absolutely accept the importance of the individual issues the Deputy has raised, but his statement regarding schools that are unable to provide education does not tally with the quality of education and teaching that happens across our schools in this country. I am not denying for a moment that there are issues that many schools confront but what we have seen is, with regard to the funding that is available to the Department of Education, the money they spend and the teachers that are available to them, the investment levels have gone up year after year. I know the Minister, Deputy McEntee, will continue to do all she can with the funding available to her to respond to the important issues many schools are facing at the moment. We have never spent so much on our schools as we are spending at the moment because we have never had so many reasons to be reminded of how important our schools are at the moment.

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