Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Seanad Éireann" and substitute the following:

"—recognises the major investment by Government since 1997 in our schools, in the provision of additional school places to meet demographic expansion, investment in school buildings throughout the country, additional teachers and other supports including:

the investment of more than €2.6 billion in more than 7,800 school building projects over the lifetime of the last national development plan and the planned investment of almost €4.5 billion in school buildings under the current national development plan;

the unprecedented level of capital expenditure on schools, where this year alone more than €586 million will be spent on the school building programme as compared with just €92 million in 1997;

the delivery of 12,000 new primary school places in 2008, a record number in any one year;

the completion of more than 3,000 projects, costing in excess of €300 million, under the summer works scheme since its introduction in 2004;

the increase of 44% in the funding for the minor works grant in 2006 with more than €27 million paid out to schools in the school year 2007-08;

over 2,000 extra primary teachers more than the number in schools when the Government took office last summer;

the increases in the overall day-to-day funding for primary schools to its current level of €330 per pupil;

the improvements in the primary school capitation grant which has increased from €95.87 per pupil in 2001 to its current rate of €178.58, representing an increase of more than 86%;

the improvements in the ancillary grant that is paid to primary schools for the employment of support staff such as caretakers and secretaries where it has almost doubled in value since 2001 from €76.18 per pupil to the current rate of €151.50 per pupil;

the targeting of additional supports and funding to schools in the most disadvantaged areas under the Department's DEIS action plan;

the targeting of supports and additional funding for pupils with special educational needs;

and supports the Government approach of building on these achievements in a manner that is consistent with overall prudent management of the Irish economy.

I am delighted to welcome the Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I believe this is the first opportunity we have had to welcome him formally to the Department of Education and Science. I am pleased to move the amendment. I read it out to Members because it explains what is taking place. Listening to the speakers so far, and I anticipate more of the same, one would think everything had ground to a halt and that nothing had been done for the past ten years. There has been no acknowledgement of the tremendous strides we have taken in education in the past decade.

I fought a battle when I was first elected to the other House more than 12 years ago. We could not get a remedial teacher for our schools. There were approximately 27 remedial teachers for 144 schools, yet 78% of the schools were covered by remedial teachers. That might appear an odd matter to be discussing in this day and age but five or six schools sharing a remedial teacher was the only extra support available in those days. I welcome our esteemed Member, Senator O'Toole.