Tom Hayes (Tipperary South, Fine Gael)
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Question 136: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his views on the fact that Ireland is 24th out of the top 25 OECD countries in relation to education funding; his plans to improve this situation; his views on the areas of education funding (details supplied) that will be of greatest importance in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24083/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The figures quoted by the Deputy are contained in an OECD Report Education at a Glance which, although published in 2007, uses data up to 2004 and hence does not capture the extra investment that has been put into Irish education since then.

In any event, the OECD Report shows how Irish students are performing significantly better than those in other developed countries in a number of areas. For example, the reading ability of Irish 15 year-olds was far better than the international average. 91% of Irish 25-34 year-olds had completed at least upper second level education or an equivalent course such as a FÁS qualification — compared with an OECD average of 82%. The proportion of the population aged 25-34 with higher education in Ireland at 41% was well above the OECD average of32%. Ireland was in the top three (with Spain and Finland) most socially equitable countries in terms of educational outcomes and access to higher education. The number of science graduates per 100,000 of employed 25-34 year olds in Ireland was the second highest in the OECD. Third level drop-out rates in Ireland were also significantly below the international average.

In relation to investment, the OECD Report notes that between 1995 and 2004, in real terms (allowing for inflation), total public and private spending has increased here by 74% at primary, second and further education levels and also by 74% at higher education. At first and second levels, this scale of increase was the second highest of any OECD country while at third level it was 6th highest. So, total spending grew faster in Ireland, in absolute terms, than in most other OECD countries. A comparison of trends in public expenditure only, shows that Ireland recorded a very strong pattern of growth in the decade up to 2004 — with a doubling in real terms of total public expenditure on education. This placed Ireland second only to Greece among OECD countries in the scale of increase.

As also noted in the OECD Report is the fact that "In Ireland, the strong growth of GDP hides a significant increase in spending on educational institutions when spending on education is considered as a proportion of GDP". Hence, in relation to national income a rapid increase in spending on education — as in other areas of public service — has not kept pace in some years with the extremely rapid increase in national income.

I am pleased to say however, that investment in education has also increased very significantly since 2004. Overall investment in education which has increased significantly in recent years — up by more than 70% since 2002 to over €9.3 billion this year. This represents a significant increase of over €690 million, or 8%, on the funding position after Budget 2007 and will enable my Department to deliver significantly on a number of fronts:

Investing almost €600 million in school buildings;

Bringing expenditure on special education to twice the 2004 amount;

Putting additional teachers and special needs assistants in place in primary and post-primary schools; and

Providing €4.6 billion or €380 million extra for teacher pay and pensions.

The Programme for Government sets out a commitment to implement a comprehensive Schools' ICT Strategy, supported by a dedicated capital investment programme and addressing schools' needs for technical support and maintenance. It will also cover the training needs of teachers. The Programme for Government also set out that second level students will be given the opportunity to acquire an ECDL qualification in computers by the time they leave school.

The NDP provides €252m for the new Schools' ICT strategy to develop an e-Learning culture in schools that will ensure that ICT usage is embedded in teaching and learning across the curriculum. The new strategy will address teacher professional development, the maintenance of a national broadband network for schools, the upgrading and renewal of hardware along with the provision of software and digital content for learning. The planned investment will also address maintenance and support requirements.

Turning to class size, the Programme for Government sets out the overarching policy position in relation to the provision of additional teachers and on reductions in class size over the life of the Government. The Programme contains a commitment to increase the number of primary teachers by at least 4000 and on that basis to make further progress on reducing class sizes.

The Programme also sets out how improvements in class size in primary schools will be brought about by changes to the staffing schedule that is used to allocate classroom teachers to primary schools based on the total enrolment in the school. The schedule allocates teachers within enrolment bands and the current bands are based on an average of 27 pupils. The Programme for Government sets a revised basis for the 2010/11 school year of an allocation based on an average of 24 pupils to a class and that this will be achieved on a gradual basis by a series of annual reductions each of 1 point on the schedule. The latest figures available on average primary class sizes relate to the 2006/07 school year. At that time, the average class size was 24. And the pupil teacher ratio — which includes resource teachers etc.- was 16.4:1 compared to 22.2 in the 1996/97 school year. For the current school year, extra teachers were provided to staff schools on the basis of a general rule of at least one classroom teacher for every 27 children.

In addition to the supports provided in the classroom, additional resources, including teaching resources, are also provided to cater for the needs of pupils with special educational needs. Since 2004 investment in special education has doubled to €900 million this year and huge progress has been made:

Almost 6,000 additional teachers and SNAs have been put in place mostly at primary level — bringing the total number of special education staff to about 19,000;

The level of training available to teachers has improved significantly;

All schools have been assigned learning support resource teaching hours based on their enrolment figures;

The application process for extra supports has been transformed for the better with the establishment of the NCSE and its team of more than 80 local Special Educational Needs Organisers;

A significant expansion in the number of NEPS psychologists is also underway, with a view to all schools receiving a direct service in the 2009/2010 school year; and

There has been a particular focus in recent years on improving services for children with autism. In the past year alone, about 100 extra special classes for autistic children have been set up, bringing the total number to almost 280.

Another area that has seen significant targeted investment in recent years is that of additional supports for children and young people from disadvantaged communities and specifically to address matters of class size in primary schools serving disadvantaged communities.

In 2008, some €800 million is being provided for such initiatives at all levels of the education system — an increase of 75% on the comparable figure for 2003. Under the DEIS action plan, primary schools serving the most disadvantaged communities are being targeted to benefit from a wide range of extra resources from smaller classes, to school meals, intensive literacy and numeracy programmes and additional day-to-day funding. They are also in receipt of Home School Community Liaison and School Completion services.

The DEIS action plan is being rolled out on a phased basis over the period to 2010. In respect of the 2007/08 school year, grants amounting to approximately €10 million issued to the 670 Primary schools which are participating in the DEIS Initiative. Almost €5 million was paid in the course of the year in respect of the 203 Post Primary schools participating in the initiative and 80 Post Primary Schools receiving grants under pre-existing schemes. In addition, approximately another 1,900 primary schools received almost €4 million of grant assistance to assist them with their respective levels of dispersed disadvantage. 2006 saw the implementation of targeted class size reductions of 20:1 in junior classes and 24:1 in senior classes in urban/town primary schools serving the most disadvantaged communities. In the 2006/2007 school year access to teacher/coordinator support for any of the rural primary schools, not already in receipt of such support under a previous measure, was implemented. Under DEIS, Home/School/Community liaison and School Completion Programme services have been extended to any of the urban/town primary schools and second-level schools not alreadybenefiting from them.

Additional supports outside of the classroom are also provided to meet the needs of children whose first language is not English. This is met through a programme of language support provided by additional teachers at primary and second level who help children to improve their English language skills. The commitment to provide 1,800 Language Support Teachers in primary and post-primary schools, outlined in the Programme for Government has already been exceeded with the allocation of almost 2,000 language support teachers in the current school year. The corresponding figures for the 2006/07 and 2005/06 school years are approximately over 1,400 and over 800 respectively.

There is a Government commitment to doubling the primary capitation grant by 2012 and to significantly increasing the value of the ancillary services grant that is used by schools for the employment of support staff such as caretakers and secretaries. These commitments are a direct follow-on from the clear thrust of Government policy over recent years to improve the position of primary schools in particular. In 2007, the primary capitation grant was €163.58. This was increased by €15 in 2008 to €178.58 per pupil.

On the basis of information available to the Department and taking account of the Area Development Plans produced by the Commission on School Accommodation, it is estimated that about 9,000 additional primary school places are needed in the short term, most of them in the greater Dublin area. To deal with this increasing demand for school places, the Government is providing funding of €4.5 billion over the lifetime of the new National Development Plan (NDP). This will be the largest investment programme in schools in the history of the State and it will enable the Department to ensure that school places are available where needed. It will also allow the Department to continue the school building modernisation programme which commenced during the life time of the last NDP when well over €2.6 billion was invested in school development, delivering over 7,800 projects.

€586 million has been allocated for school buildings in 2008 which includes €95 million extra for primary schools. The Pre-Budget Outlook published by the Department of Finance in November provided €295 million for primary school buildings in 2008. This was further increased by more than 30% in the Budget to €390 million. This investment almost €600 million in 2008 will enable the completion of work on 67 large-scale primary schools projects that will deliver 7,000 additional permanent school places in new schools and 2,300 additional permanent school places in existing schools. Construction work for over 150 devolved projects under the Permanent Accommodation Scheme which will provide 8,000 additional places in existing primary schools.

Under the current National Development Plan, a total of €1.135 billion has been identified for PPP Projects within the Education sector.

A Schools programme of 27 primary and post primary schools was announced in September 2005 and these projects are now moving through the system with the 1st Bundle of 4 post primary schools likely to commence construction later this year. The 2nd Bundle of 6 schools was advertised in the European Journal in May and the Minister will be announcing the 3rd Bundle of school projects later this year.

On the Third Level programme 17 projects in 9 institutions were announced in November 2005 and the first bundle of these will be offered to the market this year. The Department will continue to use the PPP model as appropriate in order to supplement the programme of school construction under the traditional route in relation to funding at second-level, over €1 billion is allocated in 2008 for the funding of grants to secondary schools, running costs for Community and Comprehensive Schools and annual grants to VECs.

In relation to third level I would like to point out that public investment in higher education has increased significantly over the last decade. When all higher education funding is taken into account, the overall provision by the Department of Education and Science for the sector amounts to some €2 billion for 2008. This is an increase of some 25% since 2005, when the provision amounted to €1.6 billion and an increase of some 135% on the €850 million provided in 1997.

Between 2002 and 2007, expenditure on Further Education has increased by over 50%, from €256m to €392m. In terms of extending opportunity, this increased expenditure meant that in 2007, nearly 49,000 places were provided in further education courses compared with under 44,000 places in 2002. In addition, the adult literacy programme provided for 44,000 learners in 2007 compared with 28,000 in 2002.

Of course, all Programme for Government commitments to improve public services, including those in the education sector, are contingent on the economic and budgetary environment and the need for prudent expenditure and fiscal management. Consequently, the competing demands for funding within the education sector must be considered in the context of the overall economic and budgetary position that might prevail in the coming years.