Liam Fitzgerald (Fianna Fail)

At the same time, capitation funding has risen from €57 to €101 per pupil in primary schools. This has been one of the ongoing bones of contention for teachers. I know because I had 12 years of it when I taught in an inner city school. The funding has been almost doubled. No one can dispute that this is a spectacular expansion in the education capital programme and the primary capital programme in particular. The facts speak for themselves.

The position of the Government is clear. It is determined, as demonstrated over the past five years, to continue the school building programme to meet new, growing and diverse needs—