I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £26,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1967, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Education (including Institutions of Science and Art), for certain Miscellaneous Educational and Cultural Services and sundry Grants-in-Aid.
Supplementary Estimates are required in the case of the following Votes—Office of the Minister for Education, Primary Education, Secondary Education, Vocational Education and Vote for Universities and Colleges and Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. The following are the factors which gave rise to the necessity for these Supplementary Estimates.
The additional sums required in respect of Vote 28 are for Subheads A 1— Salaries, Wages and Allowances; A 4— Expenses in connection with Commission on Higher Education; F 1—Publications in Irish; and G 8—Scientific Research Grants to Students.
In so far as Subhead A 1 is concerned, the excess arises from the implementation of the general agreement made at Conciliation Council Meetings in June and July, 1966, under the Civil Service Conciliation and Arbitration Scheme for payment as from 1st June, 1966 of certain increases not exceeding £1 per week to officers on salaries not exceeding £1,200 per annum. Provision for such increases could not be made at the time of the preparation of the original Estimate as the agreement was not negotiated until July, 1966.
It was also not possible to estimate with any degree of precision at the time of the preparation of the original Estimate the amount which would be required for subhead A 4—Expenses in connection with the Commission on Higher Education, and only a token provision of £10 was made. The actual sum required for the financial year 1966-67 is now estimated at £910. I may say that a Summary of the Report of the Commission was presented to me by the Commission on 24th February, 1967 and arrangements are being made to have it printed and published with all possible dispatch.
The excess in Subhead F 1 is occasioned by (1) an excess of £4,000 in subsection F 1 (i) owing to certain publication costs accruing due for payment earlier than anticipated and (2) to a special payment of £19,000 to a firm engaged full-time in the publication of books in Irish.
The other subhead in this Vote for which a supplementary sum is required is G 8—Scientific Research Grants to Students. This scheme has been in operation for many years and the grants payable under it are in the form of maintenance allowances to graduate students for training in research in science departments in Irish universities. To be eligible for a grant, a student must have secured at least second class honours, grade one, in his degree examination.
A decision was made in 1965 to extend the scheme in two important respects. In the first place the fields of research to which the scheme applied were extended to include engineering as well as pure science. Secondly, it was decided that the grants, which up to then had been tenable for one year only, should be renewable for a second year and a third year subject to satisfactory reports on the progress of the student's work. This decision was taken in the light of expert advice, which was that one year of research was no longer sufficient for the training of scientists either for industry or for the educational sector.
The underlying purpose in expanding the scheme was to stimulate research in the science and engineering departments of the universities. This is important in making university teaching posts attractive to scientists and engineers of high calibre. It also assists the university staffs to keep abreast of advances in their own fields and leads therefore to a strengthening of undergraduate teaching.
In the current academic year, that is, the year which began in October last, there are 45 students in receipt of grants awarded for the first time this year and 36 students who are now in their second year or third year of post-graduate work.
It was not possible to forecast accurately at the time of the preparation of the original Estimates the number of students who would qualify for new grants, or apply for renewal of their grants, as the revised arrangements had been only a short while in operation. It became clear during the course of the year, however, that an additional sum of £5,700 would be required.
Excesses in the Votes for Primary and Secondary Education are attributable to agreements reached at meetings of the Conciliation Councils under the Schemes of Conciliation and Arbitration for the three groups of teachers—national, secondary and vocational. The increases in salaries agreed upon were in line with those granted to civil servants with salaries not exceeding £1,200 per annum which I have already referred to in relation to the excess in Subhead A1 of Vote 28.
In the case of the Primary Education Vote, the additional cost of the increases in salaries and capitation grants for the period 1st June, 1966, to 31st March, 1967, is estimated to be £377,000. A further sum of £113,000 will, it is estimated, be required to meet the additional cost of salaries of an increased number of teachers resulting from the continuing improvement in school staffing conditions.
The excess in Subhead D of Vote 29 —Primary Education — arises partly from the effects of the increases in salaries already referred to and partly from a marginal underestimation in the first instance of the amount required for the subhead.
In relation to Vote No. 31 — Vocational Education — the educational schemes drawn up annually by vocational education committees are financed mainly from local rates and from State grants to the committees. The amount which may be contributed by the local rating authorities is limited, as a maximum, to the product of 24d per £1 of valuation. The balance of the current expenditure of vocational education committees is met for the most part from the State grant from Subhead A of this Vote.
In 1966-67 the amount provided in the subhead for State grants to the 38 vocational education committees was £3,091,100. This sum was made up of two elements, firstly, annual grants which are paid by the Department to all committees in proportion to the amount contributed from the local rates and, secondly, special grants which are paid by the Department to committees whose resources would not otherwise be sufficient to finance their approved schemes.
Due to the increased expenditure on salaries resulting from the agreement already referred to under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for vocational teachers and to necessary additional expenditure on equipment and materials and extra teachers required urgently to cope with increased enrolments and wider courses of instruction, it has been found necessary to increase the total amount of the special grants for 1966-67 in the case of a number of vocational education committees. The extra amount is £110,000 and this is the sum now requested in the Supplementary Estimate.
I come now to the Vote for universities and colleges. A sum of £199,000 is being provided by way of ad interim grants to the university colleges in order to obviate the raising of fees in respect of the coming financial year. I stated in Seanad Éireann on the 9th of last month that I had given most earnest consideration to representations made to me in regard to university fees particularly in view of the imminence of the Report of the Commission on Higher Education. I came to the conclusion that it would be particularly inopportune for university tuition fees to be raised just now before the Government should have an opportunity of considering the recommendations in the Report.
Provision is also being made for an increase in the grant to the College of Surgeons from £8,000 to £16,000. The additional money is required to meet increased expenditure on salaries and equipment.
On the capital expenditure side, an additional £110,000 is being made available to University College Dublin to meet the balance of the expenditure on the science buildings at Belfield. It was originally anticipated that the final accounts would not be ready for presentation before the financial year 1967-68 and accordingly provision for final payments was not made in the Vote for the present financial year. The accounts are, however, being presented to the college during the present year and the necessary provision to meet them is, accordingly, being made in the Supplementary Estimate.
Capital expenditure had not been anticipated in the case of University College Galway during 1966-67. In fact, however, certain works had to be undertaken in connection with the heating arrangements of the quadrangle buildings and there are other capital costs also to be met this year in connection with the college's plans for the provision of extra accommodation. The amount involved is £35,000.
I trust that the purposes for which extra money is being made available in these Supplementary Estimates for the Votes, Office of the Minister for Education, Primary, Secondary and Vocational Education and Universities and Colleges, will commend themselves to the House and I ask for its approval accordingly of the Supplementary Estimates involved.
