I would first like to welcome the recruitment of up to 2,800 additional teachers in 2013 and 2014. This announcement is two-fold, it not only benefits our young schoolchildren but also those teachers who have recently graduated or will be graduating in the coming year. This announcement is designed to specifically protect the pupil-teacher ratio which Minister Howlin announced would not increase for ANY school next year.
It was announced that there would be €15m allocated over 3 years for a book rental scheme available to every primary school in the country. This programme will see a massive back to school burden being lifted off hard-pressed families. I and the Labour Party have fully supported a book rental scheme for some time and I am delighted to see money being allocated to it today.
In the area of special education, the €1.3bn allocated to special education has been protected again and there has been a further allocation of €33m to this area. The special education sector received a further boost in this budget in the area of recruitment. It has been announced that one-third of those teachers recruited will be resource teachers.
The education budget also allocates €9m to continue rolling out the literacy and numeracy strategy, as well as continuing the commitment of €47m to replacing prefabs. The roll-out of broadband in our schools will continue to push on across the country and DEIS schools have been unequivocally protected. Finally, in the area of Higher Education maintenance grants for students have been left untouched.
Pre-budget submissions from Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin were lacking in this area. As I noted previously, there has been an additional investment of €33m to support children with special educational needs. The Fianna Fáil pre-budget submission indicated that they would increase the investment in this area to €23.5m while Sinn Féin made NO allowance for an increase in resource teachers. Minister Quinn and Minister Howlin managed to allocate an additional €33m to this extremely important area while the opposition seems to have given it very little thought.
“The above measures prove that this Budget is pro-student and pro-education. The Labour Party and Minister Quinn will continue to provide viable options to difficult problems and work within the present financial constraints. No decision in Budget 2014 was easy but I am delighted to see that input from myself and my colleagues has been included in these education decisions. I do believe this is a good day for education and educators in the country but as with so much as else - there is more work to do.
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