Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I am happy to share my time with Senator Browne. I am delighted the Fine Gael group tabled this motion. It is a crucially important matter which is worthy of discussion. I could add a few more issues to those raised. There is, for example, the whole problem of the building budget for schools. Regardless of how it may appear on paper, it is causing chaos in schools around the country. The Senators present are from all over the country. Each of us could visit schools in his or her constituency where an expectation that a new building would be up and running by now has not materialised. It can be described as regrouping or cutbacks or any other name, but the reality is that at best a slowdown is under way in school building and at worst the programme is not proceeding.

This has happened before. The Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy de Valera, and the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Noel Dempsey, both took an interest in this issue while wearing other hats. I am also aware that the Leader in her capacity as Minister for Education and Science in a previous Government also took a great interest in this matter. The good news of the recent past has been swallowed up almost immediately because we were trying to catch up. While I do not dispute the Minister of State's figures about teacher intake, for instance, that there will be 1,280 new graduates entering primary teaching and that the number of teachers has doubled since 1987, both of which are true, the figures on our side have also increased. Changes in birth rates have differed from expectations. There is a need for more teachers in schools as different kinds of functions have been created in schools with teachers doing much more than simply being in the classroom. There is a shortage and we are not even standing still.