Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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51. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of primary schools that he visited in person in 2013; the number of secondary schools that he has visited in person in 2013; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25501/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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To date in 2013, I have visited 21 schools throughout the country, 13 primary schools and eight post-primary schools.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for the reply. I tabled this question because it is important the Minister is at the coalface in engaging with both primary and secondary schools as well as the third level sector. At the outset of his tenure, the Minister stated it was not his intention to visit many schools and that he wanted to be in his office in the Department. That would be a very wrong approach because many of the policies he has introduced are having a very serious impact and it is important, therefore, that the Minister would engage with schools. I highlighted earlier for the Minister a school with 70 students which has lost a minor works grant to the value of €7,000 at the end of last year, and it will not come to them again at the end of this year. That is €100 per student which that school will now have to fund-raise as a result. It is not good enough for the Minister to blame the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, and his colleagues for the fact that he cannot keep the promises he made in the election in terms of not cutting education. I call on the Minister to reinstate the minor works grant.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The tradition introduced by previous Fianna Fáil Ministers of spending up to two days per week visiting schools and reporting back to look for special exemptions and favours created a sort of 18th century acceptance of patronage that did nothing for the welfare of this republic. The reforms I and the Ministers of State are introducing are better for everyone. I accept that visiting schools on a reduced basis is a necessary component of my job, but it is not the main mission, as it was for a couple of Fianna Fáil Ministers. Changing the 33 VECs into 16 education and training boards is one major reform, as is the change in the junior cycle, and I welcome the support of all Deputies and Senators for those reforms.

The balance must be right and the balance I inherited in Marlborough Street was not right. Effectively, the Minister had been spending less than a day and a half behind the ministerial desk doing the work that needed to be done.

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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I am not looking for the Minister to go round the country dispensing largesse to different schools. I want the Minister to realise the impact of the measures he has taken and to ensure that impact is minimised by the way he runs the Department. Schools are finding it difficult. A policy of not visiting those schools the Minister is responsible for managing is the wrong approach. I encourage him to do that and to listen to the impact his policies have had. We face a funding crisis at primary school level at the end of the year unless the Minister changes his approach to the minor works grant. He is putting unbearable pressure on families who want to educate their children is a system that is supposed to be free.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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The Minister is missing the point. Of course he must focus on his day job, with reform and change being part of his brief. It is important, however, to remember that when the Minister visits a school, particularly a disadvantaged school, it creates a great lift in the community and shows interest on the part of the Government. The Minister can also see examples of good practice under way in many of those schools. There is an empowerment aspect to the job that is important. When I was a principal, when a Minister visited the school, the word would go around the flats for weeks before and after. It was a positive message and the Minister should not remove himself from that.

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I thank the Deputies for their comments. Getting the balance right is necessary. I can now visit more schools than was the case a year or two ago. I accept Deputy Finian McGrath's remarks but the practice in the past had given rise to unrealisable and unfair expectations. I wanted to break that practice and change it. I accept that teachers and school communities, as I mentioned in a comprehensive speech in CBS Naas two weeks, make an extraordinary input through the public private partnership that makes up the Irish education system, with contributions from parents and teachers who go the extra mile every day. It is not taken for granted by me or the Department. We would not be able to deliver in these straitened times without that commitment, and anything I can do to maintain and sustain that morale, I will do.