Síle de Valera (Clare, Fianna Fail)

We had a good discussion on this matter yesterday. As Senator Ryan said, the Constitution confers on the Lower House the supreme role in the matter of public finances. The Government must obtain its approval to spend public money and the Minister for Finance is accountable to that House for expenditure.

Senator O'Toole felt that the wording of section 13 suggested that, having received his allocation for a particular year, the Minister for Finance might get a second bite of the cherry by being able to determine how much of the allocation is spent on educational plans. I reassure Senators that this is not the intention of the provision. Subsection 13(1) simply states that enough money must be made available to allow for the preparation and implementation of educational plans. This would happen as part of the overall allocation process and a two stage process is not envisaged.

Senators expressed concern yesterday that the Minister would set an unreasonably low level of funding for the preparation and implementation of educational plans. This is not the case and this section will prevent rather than facilitate such a strategy. It was to this that Senator Fitzgerald very ably referred. It is a well established principle of administrative law that a Minister must not act unreasonably in exercising his or her function. If a decision were made to make a clearly inadequate allocation for educational plans, a person would have a good case to bring this before the courts. Ministers must act reasonably in performing their functions. This provision will ensure that the Ministers are reminded, when an allocation is made each year, of their duties under the Constitution. A key objective of the Bill is to ensure equality between those who have special needs and those who do not.

Senator Fitzgerald also remarked that this provision is unprecedented. It is difficult not to agree with that view. It makes the rights contained in the Bill immeasurably stronger.