I support Senators Brian Hayes and O'Toole in saying that the Department of Finance always classifies education as social expenditure and has resolutely refused to regard it as a productive investment. I have asked the Department of Finance and its officials regularly to tell me what bit of education expenditure one can cut without affecting the country's potential to grow economically but it will not tell me. If one regards education as a productive investment, as I do, which adds an enormous value to our society, then cutting back on education expenditure is a very foolish thing to do.