Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I thank the Minister for Education and Skills for taking the time to be here in person. In another circumstance, I would picture the many crushing disappointments of yesterday's budget announcement but I will save that for another time and just speak about one issue involving Gaeltacht courses that primary teachers in training are expected to attend. I raise the issue because of a letter Deputy Jan O'Sullivan received from a constituent and passed on to me. I will give the Minister a flavour of what the student, who I will not name, was saying.

The student mentioned the cost of mandatory Gaeltacht courses incurred by primary school teachers and said that they sought Deputy O'Sullivan's support for a reinstatement of Government support for these courses in budget 2018. The student wrote that since 2012, due to cutbacks, students have had to pay for attending two courses in the Gaeltacht, each of two weeks' duration. The student wrote that although she believed it was necessary for students to attend these courses, the cost is around €1,400 per student, which she believed was too much for students to bear. She wrote that this does not include transport costs and living expenses. The student also makes the case that while they are two weeks away from home, teachers are missing out on the part-time job income they get during that time. She wrote that up until 2012, the cost of these courses was subsidised by the Government and that for an average student to save for one Gaeltacht placement now, they must work two eight-hour shifts every weekend for ten weeks and save all earnings.As a result they have no money left to pay for living expenses each week. The student asked that the matter be brought to the attention of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, and requested that in budget 2018 he reinstate the subsidies for these courses, which would help to alleviate the burden of these expenses on students.

The Minister will probably elaborate on what has been done in budget 2018 to deal with this issue; however, I wish to make a further point. I think the USI also called in its pre-budget submission for a restoration of the grants for student teachers attending mandatory Gaeltacht courses. Nobody is suggesting the courses should be stopped in any way as they are very important for student teachers in brushing up on their Irish language competence. I was involved with the Marino Institute of Education in setting up a local initiative where students attending second level DEIS schools with an interest in becoming primary schoolteachers did grinds and received tuition after school in order to attain the standard required. I would be worried if disadvantaged students involved in teacher training had to fork out a significant amount of money at their own expense to go to the Gaeltacht. Now that we are in a better position in terms of the economic projections and that we have more money at our disposal, what the individual student and the USI are calling for is an opportunity to go back to where we were in 2012 for students attending Gaeltacht courses which I attended as a trainee primary schoolteacher and for the courses to be subsidised. If that has not happened in the budget, rather than turning it into a party-political point-scoring exercise, will the Minister examine the issue and restore the support in the coming year?

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue. I have received similar correspondence to that which he has raised with me. I think he knows the backdrop to this issue better than I do in that there is a compulsory Gaeltacht placement element of the course and that it arose when teacher education courses were reconfigured in line with the recommendations of my Department's literacy and numeracy strategy and the Teaching Council's policy on teacher education. There is a need to ensure all primary teachers are competent and confident in their use of the Irish language, especially given its importance in the primary school curriculum. Changes to the structure and content of the Gaeltacht placement arose from the Teaching Council's new accreditation criteria, published in June 2011, which provide for "an extended and reconceptualised Gaeltacht residency which will now form part of the overall programme and be under the direct jurisdiction of the teacher education providers". The report of the Teaching Council’s Gaeltacht placement working group provides for the operation of the revised placement and that initial teacher education providers have responsibility for quality assuring the content, teaching and assessment of the Gaeltacht element of initial teacher education programmes.

My Department supports the changes which contribute to overall quality improvement in initial teacher education. As the Senator indicated, the revised Gaeltacht placement now consists of two two-week blocks which take place in separate academic years. Prior to 2012, student primary teachers spent three weeks on Gaeltacht placement, usually during the summer months following the first year of their course. My Department paid a grant of €637 per student per three week placement directly to the Gaeltacht summer colleges. The average annual cost was €850,000. The decision to stop the payments by my Department was made with effect from September 2012. In the context of budget 2012, difficult choices had to be made to achieve savings. To that end, in 2011 all Departments carried out a comprehensive review of expenditure on all budgets and programmes and proposals to achieve savings were put to the Government. It was in this context that the decision was taken to stop the payment of grants towards the cost of student teachers' attendance at Gaeltacht courses from September 2012. The removal of the grant means that students are liable for this cost which I understand is in the region of €1,500 for the four weeks spent on placement. This cost is split over two years in accordance with the Teaching Council's requirements. The Senator will understand, therefore, that the decision to stop the Gaeltacht placement grants was taken during the economic crisis when, unfortunately, very difficult decisions had to be made to stabilise the nation's finances. Priority was given to protecting resources for front-line education services as far as possible, which remains particularly challenging with rising numbers of schoolgoing children. The changes to the Gaeltacht placement grant were publicised in advance of implementation in order that students would be aware of the new arrangements before embarking on initial teacher education programmes.

The Senator may wish to note that, to assist with the cost of the Gaeltacht placement, students qualifying for a 100% fee grant or who would have qualified for a full fee grant but for the free fees scheme can apply for a field trip grant towards travel and accommodation costs, subject to the normal terms and conditions of the student grants scheme. Apart from the student grants system, in circumstances of particular need students may apply for support under the student assistance fund. In view of other pressing demands on the education budget it has not been possible to consider reinstating this subvention to date. The Senator will be aware that a major report on the funding of third level education, chaired by Mr. Peter Cassells, has been published and is being examined by the Oireachtas committee. The report outlines a number of options for future funding. The committee is assessing the appropriateness of the different options.

Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Labour)
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I find the Minister's reply disappointing. The announcement made by him yesterday was that the overall budget for the Department of Education and Skills was in the region of €9 billion. It would cost €1 million to resolve the issue I have outlined. We all know the background to it and I fully accept that we were in an economic crisis. We have all heard that 1,000 times, but we have also heard that the recovery is happening, that things are better now, that we have more money and that there are chances to repair the cutbacks and reductions that took place in recent years. That would be a reasonable expectation on the part of those in society who have endured huge pain. It appears that yesterday's budgetary announcement did not really do a huge amount for those studying at third level or training in various colleges. This is one such measure which would cost €1 million out of the €9 billion at the Minister's disposal. While I appreciate that he is not in a position to change the decisions made yesterday, I urge him to give some indication that he has a vision for the future - to paraphrase him - in rowing back on the difficult decisions made and that we can look forward to this type of measure being somewhere near the top of his priority list when trying to reverse the cutbacks introduced in the past.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The position is that one has to set priorities. I have clearly set priorities to get teachers back into the classroom. In September 2016 and 2017 I provided 5,000 extra teachers, plus 2,000 special needs assistants, SNAs. For the coming September I have added another 1,280 teachers and a further 1,000 SNAs. We are providing for 1,400 extra apprenticeships, 1,400 extra traineeships, 1,000 extra places on the Springboard programme and a demographic expansion of 2,000 higher education places. We are expanding substantially in all areas of priority, but, unfortunately, we have not been able to provide additional support for student grants, other than for postgraduate students, including those taking the masters of education programme, where those on low incomes receive additional support. It is an arena in which even the Senator would probably criticise the budget for not doing enough. We have a budget this year of €10 billion. It is the first time we have reached that amount, but even then, it is stretched to meet what are a lot of justifiable calls made on it. That is the difficulty. Each year I will review all of the calls made and look to see which ones can be funded from year to year. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet what I was asked to do within the resources outlined yesterday.