Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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71. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the OECD 'Education at a Glance' Report, which ranked Ireland 36th out of the 36 countries in terms of investment in second level education as a percentage of GDP, has been drawn to her attention. [22563/23]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy will be aware, senior academics and other independent analysts have raised questions regarding the use of GDP as the most appropriate measure of the size of the Irish economy. My department published a paper on this matter in October 2022 to assist users of these statistics to understand this issue. This paper is available on www.gov.ie under OECD briefing notes.

The paper outlines how the very large increase of 34% in GDP between 2014 and 2015 raised questions about the usefulness of GDP as an accounting standard for Ireland and its distorting effects on measures such as spend per capita on education. In order to help in analysis of the Irish macroeconomy and in the derivation of other such development indicators, a special measure, GNI-Star (GNI*), which excludes these distorting factors by (for example) excluding the net profits of companies that have been sent abroad, rather than staying in the Irish economy. GNI* has been calculated by the Central Statistics Office (2016) and is available as a continuous series (alongside GDP) from 1995. For context, according to the CSO, in 2021 GNI* was about 30 per cent below the level of GDP. An indication of the more appropriate value of GNI* versus GDP is that GNI* is now being used instead of GDP in national policy for example, the National Development Plan, 2021-2030. The Department of Finance uses GNI* in meeting the Government’s European budgetary requirements with debt-to-GNI* figures rather than debt-to-GDP.

The briefing paper referenced above outlines how, using the alternative measure of GNI*, education expenditure in 2019 as a percentage of GNI* stood at 5.3%. This compares favourably to the OECD average for education expenditure as a percentage of national income, which stood at 4.9% in 2019. The document also looks at Ireland’s spend on education as a percentage of total Government spending and this also compares well internationally.

Since 2019, funding for school level education has increased by around €1.6 billion or 19%. The current Department of Education budget at over €10 billion in 2023 indicates very strong investment by Government. The Department’s budget is the third largest across Government.

Input measurement is just one element in examining education systems. Other measures, such as indicators that examine the quality of the system, outputs, and outcomes are important in making international comparisons and assessing the performance of Ireland’s schools and the wider education system.

In PISA, the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment, Irish 15-year olds continue to perform to a very high level in reading literacy. I am particularly encouraged by our very high standard in reading, where Ireland is placed amongst the highest achieving countries, with only three countries/economies significantly above us. This reflects the significant efforts put into delivering on the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy. Other studies over the years such as NAMER and PIRLS have also highlighted the good performance of the Irish education system.

In Education at a Glance 2022, the enrolment rates among Irish 15-19-year olds in 2020, at 90%, exceed the OECD and EU22 averages and place Ireland seventh. Our progression rates to higher education are also of a world standard. Ireland shares, in common with some other OECD countries, a pronounced pattern of completion of upper-secondary education and commencement of further and higher education around the age of 18.

As Minister for Education, I have been determined to do everything possible to ensure that all our children and young people receive the highest standard of education. Over the last three years I have delivered substantial increases in investment in our Education system and I remain committed to this vision of a world class education system for all.