I welcome the opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss the 1998 Estimates for my Department. I look forward to hearing the views of the members of the committee and to responding to members' contributions and questions on the Estimates and the issues arising from them.
The gross allocation from the four Education Votes in the 1998 Revised Book of Estimates of more than £2.6 billion reflects the major commitment of the Government to the education sector. If I was to summarise the Government's objective for education, I would say we want more people to achieve a higher level at every level of the system ranging from pre-school and primary to postgraduate work. This is predicated on the idea that high quality education is central to both promoting an inclusive society and developing a high skills, high pay, knowledge based economy. The priority is to provide resources where they are of most benefit to our students — in the schools and colleges and not in large bureaucratic structures.
In less than a year we have already implemented a range of initiatives which have begun to make a major impact on Irish education. In addition, we have allocated significant extra resources to a range of areas which will underpin the quality of the education provided in schools and colleges throughout the country. As we will consider these Estimates in detail, I would like to address a few significant areas at this point.
In our programme for Government we set out the objective of achieving computer literacy in all our schools. The l998 Estimates make provision for the first phase of the Schools IT 2000 project. This is one of the most ambitious State-funded programmes in the world which has already begun to have a major impact. It is our intention to have a permanent infrastructure in our schools, not just of hardware and software, but also the teaching skills which will put us to the forefront of international developments. This year more than 8,000 teachers will participate in ICT courses. Under the direction of the National Centre for Technology in Education which I established, this programme will help our teachers to put themselves in the front rank of teachers internationally in yet another area.
Phase 1 of the technology integration programme as outlined in Schools IT2000 — A Policy Framework for the New Millennium is also well under way. Under this programme, a total of £13.6 million is being provided in the current year in respect of first and second level schools in the form of grants. What we are achieving through this process is local empowerment, with schools getting actively involved in decisions concerning their information communication technology needs. Through our joint programme with Telecom Éireann, every school in the country will be connected to the Internet by the beginning of the next school year and every school will have multimedia computers hooked up to the Internet.
This is only phase one of the ICT integration process and I hope local communities, which in the past have made a significant contribution to the provision of hardware for schools, will continue to contribute to the equipping of schools. The programme will specifically recognise the efforts of schools, which have already achieved a considerable degree in this area.
The 1998 Estimates also reflect this Government's concern to ensure that the general physical infrastructure of our primary and post-primary schools matches the standards which our children have a right to expect. I acknowledge there are too many schools in our country which have seriously substandard accommodation. Over a long period the resources allocated to renovations and buildings have fallen far short of the needs of our schools and many children have had no adequate school accommodation during their entire time at primary level. Another factor which has arisen is that, in the context of limited resources, schools have often been given the impression that their project will be proceeded with when the money has not been there.
I am determined to end substandard accommodation in our schools and I want to do so through a transparent system of planning and well within the span of this Government. I have already begun work on fulfilling this objective. Last year I obtained additional money in Supplementary Estimates to allow certain projects proceed immediately and in this year's Estimate I obtained a 40 per cent increase in the allocation for primary renovations and buildings over the 1997 budget figure. I have also secured a major increase in second level building funds and have put in place the first ever capital budget for post-leaving certificate colleges.
There is no point pretending all substandard school accommodation will disappear overnight. It will take some time and we must also cater for the needs of areas with population increases. However, this is a strong start and the Government is committed to addressing this issue.
At the same time, we need to put in place an objective system of resolving school accommodation problems. I have, therefore, commissioned a study, which will report shortly, to recommend ways in which we could move to a points based assessment of needs. There will continue to be hard choices and no system will ever be able to rank projects in a strict absolute order. However, I hope we will at least make our decisions more transparent. With increased funding and a new transparent system of allocating it, we will now be able to face into a new era on this issue.
While we have made major advances in the funding of primary capital projects, I have no difficulty acknowledging there is a need for extra resources across the primary system. In the recent budget the overall primary sector was allocated an increase of over 10 per cent versus the allocation in the 1997 budget. As part of the increase, we have raised capitation by 11 per cent. I hope we will be in a position to go significantly beyond this over the lifetime of the Government.
Core staffing issues are also very important. Through the demographic dividend, retained under a policy initiated by the then Minister for Education, Deputy O'Rourke, many years ago, there has been a significant reduction in pupil-teacher ratios in recent years. A particular demand has been for posts to deal with special needs provision in ordinary national schools. That is why my party gave a commitment to retain the dividend within the system before the last general election and the 1998 Estimates provide for the retention of the dividend, which will arise in September 1998.
The area of remedial teaching is one of serious concern. Although we have over 1,200 remedial posts within the system, some schools have little provision and 784 schools have no provision. I emphasise that we are going to address this issue and I want every ensure that every school will have a remedial resource available to it over a reasonable time span. This will take further work on a number of issues and, particularly when dealing with the needs of smaller schools, new approaches may be needed. We must also make sure we are employing our remedial resources to the best effect. The soon to be completed review of remedial teaching will address this and I intend to make sure the teaching methods, training and support issues which require attention are addressed in the interests of the children who rely so much on this service.
The establishment of a national educational psychological service is included in the programme for Government for the simple reason that this service is badly needed. The early identification of individual needs can do a lot towards ensuring children who could drift out of the system are helped to realise their potential. A full report on the best ways to establish the service will be presented to me shortly. We have already begun to take action and, as a first step, 15 new psychologists are currently being appointed to different sections of the country. Funding for the psychologists is provided in subhead F of Vote 27 in the Estimates.
The 1998 Estimates have also enabled a national forum to be held in March this year on one of the key new areas for education policy development, early childhood education. The holding of the forum was a major consultative and planning exercise. One of its innovations was that it addressed the education of children across the age range from birth to six years. This was an important statement on how we recognise that pre-school content and provision are not the only issues. We also need to consider the needs of four to six year olds within the existing primary school system. I intend this process will lead to the publication of a White Paper which will signal the road map for future developments. We will soon begin to implement policies which will ensure that quality early education is accessible to all families.
On taking up office, I identified the adult literacy service as a priority area for funding. An additional £250,000 was secured by way of Supplementary Estimate in 1997. The Minister of State with responsibility for adult education, Deputy O'Dea, announced that the 1998 Estimates provide an additional £2 million for adult literacy, an increase of almost 100 per cent over the 1997 budget allocation.
In January of this year, the Taoiseach announced that, in the context of its strategy on drugs, the Government had decided to inaugurate a programme for young people at risk in this area. The centrepiece of the programme is a young people's facilities and services fund of £30 million to be provided over the next three years to support a variety of capital and non-capital projects in disadvantaged areas. At least £20 million will be targeted at those areas particularly affected by the heroin problem. The Education Estimates for 1998 contain £7.5 million for the youth services fund. This is provided in subhead B.8 of Vote 26. The historic lack of planning in this area and the necessity to ensure spending is properly targeted may circumscribe the ability to spend this fund in 1998, but the Government is fully committed to using this as an opportunity to help young people in some of our most disadvantaged areas to get a new start.
I recently announced a major initiative to target and assist children in the eight to 15 year age group who might be at risk of dropping out of school. Schools and communities in disadvantaged areas are being invited to participate and submit projects for consideration. I am committed to expanding and prioritising the successful outcome of this initiative. Almost £1.5 million is provided for this initiative in the miscellaneous subhead of the Vote for the Office of the Minister for Education and Science.
Before the last election, I gave a very definite commitment on behalf of my party that we would, if returned to Government, introduce maintenance grants for students in the post leaving certificate sector equal to those offered to students in third level. This commitment was included in our programme for Government and has been delivered after only one budget. Because of this, PLC students will as of this September be entitled to maintenance grants. The administrative and technical arrangements for this are receiving active consideration and will be published shortly. This represents a major financial outlay and will cost approximately £15 million in a full year. The cost of the grants from September next has been included in the 1998 Estimates in subhead F of the second-level Vote. It is important to realise that this is a significant administrative undertaking. The number of students who will benefit from this new scheme shows the scale of the task. As I have said on a number of occasions, the method and timing of payments is not yet clear, though our commitments will be honoured in full to post leaving certificate students.
The post leaving certificate colleges will also be major beneficiaries of the scientific and technological education investment fund which will be used to develop technology education at all levels ranging from primary schools to advanced research. The 1997 Act which set up the fund enables the payment by Government of £100 million into the fund in 1998 with further sums totalling £150 million in 1999 and 2000. The £100 million for 1998 is provided in the Estimates under subhead B.19 in Vote 26 — Office of the Minister for Education and Science. The Act also facilitates private donors to make gifts to the fund and where such gifts are made a specific requirement will ensure that the investment account will be used for the purposes specified and not for any other purpose.
The allocation of funds is well under way and the effects are already evident. I have outlined the impact of the schools IT 2000 funding. In addition, I have announced a wide range of projects which will help to revitalise institutions whose capital investment needs were neglected for far too long. These are mainly the institutes of technology. Both domestically and internationally, this major investment by the Government has been welcomed. An example of this can be found in technology companies which I visited in the United States earlier this year. They said that Ireland was clearly showing its commitment to remaining at the cutting edge of technological developments.
The improvement of Ireland's technological skill base has been central to my concerns since I took office last year. We have made great strides towards improving our national position in this regard, but I am conscious that further steps will be necessary in future if we are to maintain Ireland's competitive edge.
As we are all aware, the central role of education and training in social well-being in modern society has been identified time and again. According to the OECD, investment in education is as effective in capital accumulation as capital increases.
Over the past three decades we have witnessed an extraordinary expansion in third-level education, with the total numbers in third-level exceeding 100,000 for the first time. We still have more to do and I am committed to continuing to seek to expand opportunities to participate in third-level education. However, in providing these extra places we must guarantee that we provide appropriate courses and that we maintain the high quality of these courses.
The universities and institutes of technology have an absolutely central role to play in underpinning our economic well-being. The quality of certificates, diplomas and degrees at under-graduate and post-graduate level must continue to be on a par with the best in the world. Critically important is the quality and international standing of our research and development work. The quality of research and development will be crucial to Ireland carving out and maintaining a leadership position in a rapidly-changing economy and increasing international economic integration.
The 1998 Estimates include a current allocation for third-level research of £5 million in Vote 29. Details of the science and technology portion of this were announced recently by my colleague the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy. The objective of the funding is to encourage a more strategic approach within institutions towards their research policy. International experience consistently demonstrates that this approach is necessary to ensure world class standards. At the same time we are ensuring there will be funding for individual research projects. The Minister of State, Deputy Treacy has held a series of meetings with interested bodies and they have welcomed the clarification that we intend to fund both institutional and individual research projects.
I am very conscious of the need to develop an education system which is tuned into and consistent with the State's economic strategy. It was for this precise reason that last year I established a joint education industry task force to draw up an action plan for the expansion of education and training for technicians. As a result of a pilot scheme, the recruitment and training of 300 technicians for high technology industries is already under way. Its first participants have been undergoing a programme since last January both at college and in the workplace before being awarded the national certificate in technology. This initiative has the potential to lead to new ways of interaction between industry and institutions at the level of the individual institution and business.
Another key initiative put in place in recent months is the setting up of a group of business and education training interests. The key goals of this group will be to forecast emerging skills needs, make recommendations as to how they should be met and ensure any necessary measures are speedily implemented. This is no easy task but it is one that must be undertaken to ensure the real demands of our growing economy are identified and met. It is important to realise that certain skills are in short supply everywhere. The crucial thing is that we have put together a major series of initiatives to tackle these shortages. The Tánaiste and I look forward particularly to chairing the business and industry forum which is due to take place in the near future. The Government sees this as a particularly important initiative to promote greater understanding and dialogue between the business, education and industrial sectors.
It is important to allow for a series of technical adjustments in the 1997 figures which slightly distort the year-on-year figures included in the revised Book of Estimates. The Government has already shown its commitment to investing in education and I know it will continue to do so. However, the general economic and fiscal circumstances of the country cannot be ignored. In this context, I repeat the recent message of my colleagues that significant increases in expenditure for other items must necessarily impact on expenditure such as education. The Government has clearly said that it intends to stay within the fiscal parameters which have been outlined by the Minister for Finance. It will fall to all members of Government to do all they can to control expenditure and eliminate waste. This applies to my Department as much as to any other.
The Government is convinced that the economic return from education is significant from the perspective of the individual, who is likely to be better remunerated, and society as a whole. An economically successful society which provides opportunities to people at all levels is a society which will be economically inclusive and socially cohesive. We need to provide all citizens of this State with the means to secure a more economically secure future for themselves and their families. Our responsibility is to ensure the new prosperity of the State is open to all who are willing to adapt themselves and to be educated in ways that will allow them to work for a better future. Access to education for all will bring new opportunities for all, and all of society will reap the benefit.