Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I am delighted to have the Minister in the House to listen to the debate and I wish him well. He has come into office at a bad time and has a huge challenge ahead. With his educational background and being a good listener, he has taken on board the points made and I know we can look forward to a very good future for education with him monitoring this area.

I must recognise the Government's input to education since 1997. We are dealing with taxpayers' money and we need to tell the public what has gone into education. Of course more needs to be done, but that investment must be acknowledged and I intend to put it on the record in this contribution.

In 2008, €9.3 billion went to education, an increase of €690 million from 2007. This was to provide additional school places to meet demographic expansion, investment in school buildings throughout the country, and, a matter close to my heart, the investment in the DEIS programme to address educational disadvantage, for which €800 million was allocated. I want this to be a main focus. If we get education right at primary level, we will not have problems at secondary level. The funding must be focused on areas such as the provision of additional teachers, remedial teachers and other supports, including links with parents. If we get it right at that level, we are in a win-win situation in our educational programme right through to second level and beyond.

I wish to focus on one aspect of the motion, namely, capital expenditure on schools. The capital allocation for the school building programme has grown steadily in recent years, from just under €400 million in 2004 to €542 million in 2007 and to €586 million this year. Senators should reflect on this huge commitment. The Government invested over €2.6 billion in over 7,800 school building projects over the lifetime of the last national development plan. The principal component of school building and modernisation is the delivery of large-scale projects. The expected completion of large-scale projects in 2008 will consist of 21 new schools and 46 extension or refurbishment projects, giving an overall total of 67 large-scale projects.

In September, the Minister announced another 25 projects to progress through the building programme, which included 20 primary schools. Construction is also due to start in 2008 on the first bundle of PPP schools and the second bundle of schools was offered to the market early this year.

With regard to the summer works scheme, I am pleased that since 2004 over 3,000 projects consisting——