Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The people who deserve a huge amount of credit here, given the financial pressure they are under, are school principals, school leaders and school communities. In many of these cases they are keeping schools operational that, without their effort, would be under the water.

I recognise there have been increased levels of funding, but there has also been a far greater level of increase in demands, for example, insurance costs. I have figures that show many schools are spending at least 25% of their budget on insurance costs alone, before anything else. The world has changed. The Minister is talking about €30 million in additional funding. My party called for €150 million in additional funding and provided for that in our alternative budget. That is the scale of ambition that is required and sought, not just by Sinn Féin but also by teaching unions and school leaders.

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