Results 3,101-3,120 of 8,873 for speaker:Batt O'Keeffe

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (23 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: The information requested by the Deputy is not readily available in my Department. The information will have to be collated and the relevant agencies contacted. I will arrange to forward the Deputy the information as soon as it becomes available.

Written Answers — Departmental Staff: Departmental Staff (23 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: The estimated full year impact on my Department's Vote of the 2.5% pay increase with effect from 1 September 2008 is €150m, €50m of which will be a cost in 2008 and €100m in 2009. The estimated cost of the 3.5% pay increase with effect from 1 September 2009, arising under the recently negotiated second pay agreement under Towards 2016, is €80m in 2009 and €240m in a full year.

Written Answers — Schools Building Projects: Schools Building Projects (23 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: I can confirm that a devolved grant will be provided to the school to which the Deputy refers to make good the damage to the school building. In the meantime the Department is working with the school to find a solution to the schools immediate accommodation needs and the Department expects to have a satisfactory solution in place when the school returns for mid term break. In relation to...

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "—recognises, given the difficult economic circumstances, the necessity to stabilise the public finances and that taking difficult expenditure decisions and choices at this time is essential in order to ensure that public services, including education, can be sustained and improved in the long...

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——solutions that enable them to avoid putting forward difficult options for keeping expenditure under control.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: We have heard suggestions that there are easy alternative taxation measures that can somehow solve all these difficulties. This is populist nonsense. Let us remind ourselves that in the mid-1980s we followed the route of high taxation and significant borrowing, and we had difficulty recovering from that folly. We also should remind ourselves that it was by pitching the burden of taxation...

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: In order to maintain existing jobs——

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——and create replacement jobs for any that are lost, we cannot discourage private investment by taxing it out of existence——

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——which is what lurks behind much of the Labour Party's proposed solution.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: Much drama and hysteria has been whipped up about protecting our children's future——

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——and the impact, in particular, of increasing class sizes. I will deal with that issue later. The Government has more fundamental issues to deal with. Yes, we want to protect the future, not only for our children but for all our people.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: We want to do the right thing now to ensure——

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——we do not prejudice our capacity to benefit from a pick-up in the world economy. Economic and fiscal stability is essential if we are to sustain employment, which means ensuring not only the employment prospects of our children in the future but the employment prospects of their parents now.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: Viewed in that context, the Government's measures in setting a level of public expenditure that takes into account the reduction in tax revenues due to a reduced level of economic activity has to be seen as vital to the nation's future. It is unfeasible, in managing overall public expenditure, to allow a major area of expenditure such as education to spiral upwards as if nothing had changed....

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: ——by our investment in 2009 of €9.6 billion — more than treble the investment in 1997.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: We are committed to investing in education but we have to invest at a level that is consistent with what we can afford and what is sustainable at present given the economic circumstances.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: The increase of €302 million in the education budget for 2009 is therefore a real achievement in the current economic climate.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: The Department of Education and Science is one of only three Departments to have been allocated increased funding in 2009.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: However, I am not going to pretend this amount is sufficient to maintain the current level of service in all respects. It is the best we could do in the circumstances.

Education Cuts: Motion (29 Oct 2008)

Batt O'Keeffe: On budget day I made clear that a number of difficult decisions would have to be taken to enable us to work within the level of resources available for education in the coming year.