Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 1341: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on the OECD report which shows Ireland's percentage of GDP spent on secondary level education to be higher only than the Slovak Republic. [29391/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

As the Deputy will be aware, given the distinctive structure of the Irish economy and specifically, the comparatively high proportion of our GDP that is expatriated as profits of foreign direct investment enterprises, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is not a good indicator of the relative resources available in the case of Ireland. For example, the difference in magnitude between Ireland's GDP and Gross National Income (GNI) was 18% in 2003. This means that standardised expenditure data for Ireland would be higher if GNI (or GNP) were used instead of GDP. For most OECD countries, however, the difference between GDP and GNI is negligible and the vast majority of other countries are quite happy to continue using GDP to standardise international data on expenditure. Department of Education and Science expenditure on education in Ireland in 2003, the reference year used in the latest 'Education at a Glance' report, represented 4.9% of Gross National Income. This increased to 5.2% in 2005 (provisional).

The Deputy should also note that spending by my Department on second level education increased by 17% between 2003 and 2005. In 2005 €2.7 billion was spent on second-level education, up from €2.3 billion in 2003 and €1.25 billion in 1997. This Government has dramatically increased investment in education in recent years. However, it is simplistic to just say that increasing spending will result in better outcomes as evidenced by the relatively poor educational outcomes of some high spending countries. What we all wish to see is the resources targeted towards education being used to best advantage at all levels.