Maria Byrne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and I thank him for his words of wisdom earlier. It was great to listen to the budget earlier.

The first announcement I would like welcome is the forecast that GDP will grow by 4.2% in 2016 and 3.5% in 2017, and the fact that we have over 2 million people in employment. Being parochial about it, we have had five job announcements over the past five Mondays in Limerick and close to 600 jobs announced in that time.As I am my party's spokesperson on education and skills, I will confine my remarks mainly to the area of education. In creating these jobs, employers referred to the high skills and the high level of education people had in the area. Accessibility to Shannon Airport also encouraged these businesses to locate within the city centre. Investment in our education is the way to go for our future.

The €458 million increase in the budget for education is the highest ever and is to be welcomed. It will lead to the creation of 2,515 additional posts in education, 900 resource teachers and 115 additional special needs assistants, SNAs. These are measures that Members across all parties have called for over many years and they are to be welcomed.

There will be an extra €160 million over three years to target initiatives to provide for skills support and access to higher education. For those who do not want a third level education, there is greater emphasis now on skills development through SOLAS courses and so on. To be parochial for a moment, we have a very good range of skills courses on offer in Limerick through the education and training boards and the former FÁS, which is now SOLAS.

In terms of Brexit, funding is being put aside to attract researchers. That is very important because many companies coming here to create employment are looking for highly-skilled researchers.

I welcome the restoration of the full maintenance grant for 1,100 postgraduate students on low incomes and the expansion of the apprenticeship programme. We took the emphasis off apprenticeships for a long time and it is welcome that they are now being brought to the fore and encouraged.

There is provision to implement the new international education strategy and increase the value of the sector by €500 million per year. This will bring in 37,000 additional students from abroad by 2020. There will be a new comprehensive and ambitious multi-year funding package for the education sector from 2018.

Another important point is that we are reducing our unemployment figures. We have brought in a new annual €500 cost of education allowance. This will be made available to back to education allowance participants. This will encourage participants with children to go back to education. They will also receive the famous increase of €5 a week, as it was described earlier, but that €5 goes a long way for people on any sort of benefit.

From September, young jobseekers will also receive a back to education full payment of €193. That is to be commended because it is currently €160.

Over 50,000 children will benefit from the school meals programme in the coming year. One hundred guidance counsellor posts will be restored. When we tie in education to job creation, guidance teachers are very important.

The fact that sports capital grants will be announced shortly is welcome. The 85% Christmas bonus was knocked by speakers on the other side of the House. I would point out that that bonus will benefit 1.2 million people in receipt of long-term social welfare payments.

Many areas have been covered in the debate but I refer to the VAT rate for charities, which will be examined. Currently, charities cannot claim back VAT. I am aware the Minister is committed to reviewing that but it is an issue that is vitally important to many charities across the country.