Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister's presence and that the Government is not opposing the Bill. I will again outline the motivations behind it. We are not trying to limit the funding available to schools but to pressure the State and the Department to increase capitation funding so that voluntary contributions will no longer be necessary. Arising from the passage of this Bill through the previous Stage, I had a meeting with some principals in Ballymun who were concerned that we were trying to take away an avenue of funding that they greatly need without providing replacement funding. It is important to state that we are not able to include elements of replacement funding in an Opposition Bill because it would then be ruled out of order. The Labour Party's pre-budget submission does speak about the need for the return of pre-crash levels of capitation, which would cost €25 million. We have spoken about a 50% increase in capitation for DEIS schools, which would cost €23 million and benefit these schools in Ballymun. We have also spoken about a school books scheme, which would cost approximately €40 million.

We are trying - and I know the Minister appreciates this - to make the relationship between parents and schools one based on education rather than on money. Parents who are being asked for a voluntary contribution or for book rental scheme money and who are struggling are less likely to engage in school life. They just are. They are less likely to turn up to parent-teacher meetings, to hang around the school gate, or to come to school events. We can work on this together. We can have a process, but let us have a vision of free education which means that people never feel that money is a barrier between them and a proper conversation about their child's development or about their child's growing in the school environment. That is all we are trying to achieve here.

While many schools will say they need voluntary contributions to survive, it is unreasonable to suggest they would not be able to do so. This Bill prohibits the connection between a voluntary contribution and the provision of a school service. It does not prohibit fundraising or anything else of that sort. It strikes me that parents' associations feel as if they are just fundraising bodies. It is all about money all the time. We are losing the capacity and goodwill in the school community to talk about education, child development, beauty, love, poetry, and all of the other things education should be about.I appreciate that the Minister is not opposing the Bill. I acknowledge hard questions will be asked about where the money is coming from but I have outlined the ethic we are coming from. We are coming from a genuinely good place. Since the Government is not opposing the Bill, we have the capacity to work on it together and achieve something. Obviously, replacement funding is needed. There is disappointment over the capitation announcement made by the Government yesterday but let us not dwell on that. Let us dwell on what we could achieve. This Bill comes from a good place, a decent place, a place that is trying to maximise the educational relationship between students, parents and schools. With that, I would appreciate the Minister's comments.