Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

The schools expected the applications by 30 September and they have not received them. Equally, the minor works grant was a significant cutback. That covered painting, new fittings and furniture.

The devolved scheme did incredible work. I will grant the Minister this. I am delighted to see the Minister's offer where a school can build a permanent classroom for €120,000 instead of using prefabs. Such permanent solutions are the type of move we want to see.

My third point relates to the Minister's most damning move so far. The ICT funding for primary schools, which he slashed, is vital for job creation in the future. It is vital for the nation's future and the opportunities for our children. The Minister slashed €252 million from the budget. I am delighted he is shaking his head because it means he will give us good news here today. If this funding is slashed, it will be one of the worst moves of his term as Minister.

It is difficult for me to say that we currently have obsolete computers in classrooms. They are there since the year 2000. In many schools there is one computer for 30 children. That is ridiculous. There are still 100,000 of our children in classes of 30 or more. As the Minister will be aware, there is patchy broadband access. That is no way to build our future.

One of the biggest drawbacks is that the IT advisers have been pulled. They showed teachers the potential of ICT and the potential of computers. One school in my area, Carnmore national school, has had to fund-raise using a new calendar to buy two computers.

Yesterday I heard the Taoiseach state in the Dáil that Ireland is open for business. Together, the Minister and he must get this right. The Taoiseach has stated time and again that the infrastructural commitments in the NDP were sacrosanct. Cutting this budget suggests that the Minister does not understand the value of ICT to our children and our nation's future. Without investment in ICT we are staying with traditional thinking and approaches, we will not be at the races in terms of innovation and creativity and we will lose opportunities and jobs in the future. We need only consider how successful a country Singapore has been in this area. There was evidence of this after the announcement that 5,000 students failed mathematics in the leaving certificate and when one company director stated on a news programme that he had to go abroad to recruit 100 employees because the IT skill level was not available here. That is damning. The place to start is in the primary schools. I would be greatly encouraged, and the first to congratulate the Minister if I can get a commitment that the funding will be reinstated.

My fourth point is that transparency is badly needed on the school building programme. It is essential so that schools figure out where they are on the list, and plan accordingly. The former Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, put the school building programme on the web. The Minister's predecessor, Deputy Hanafin, took it away and replaced it with announcement by press release. This is most unsatisfactory. We all have evidence of this. I ask the Minister to put the school building programme back on the web.

Let us be honest with the schools. Let us be transparent and tell them where they stand. On all commitments made prior to the election, Oranmore national school, Scoil Mhuire national school, Clarinbridge, Newcastle national school, Athenry, and Lacken national school, all of which are in Galway, do not know where they stand on the building programme. St. Mary's Church of Ireland national school in Bagenalstown, County Carlow, has contacted me to say as much. I could continue, but I am aware that my colleagues will speak about this. It is time to do something about the building programme and, above all, to introduce honesty into how schools are accepted.

My final point is that principals, particularly teaching principals, are experiencing inordinate levels of administration and this needs to be reduced. This will take not money but a little creative thought. They are inundated with inordinate levels of bureaucracy and repetitious form-filling exercises.

Teaching principals, in particular, are in difficult circumstances. Some of the excessive form-filling required by the Department can be cut down simply by various sections of the Department communicating with each other instead of asking the principals to provide the same information over and over again.