Dan Boyle (Green Party)

Iceland is also the recipient of funding from the IMF and much of what is happening there is being replicated here.

I support the calls for a debate on education. It is important to consider the OECD report fully and it is also has to be accepted that inputs and outputs in education are not being measured adequately. The budgetary process engaged in by the Department of Finance has been too much about pounds, shillings and pence. Proposals were made regarding the pupil-teacher ratio, special needs assistants and larger cuts in capitation but it needs to be understood the amount being spent on education now to reverse some of the measures mentioned by Senators, and which we need to debate to more widely, has been difficult to achieve. We have the pupil-teacher ratio, we stopped the reduction in special needs assistants and we have-----