Racehorse owner and former Manchester United shareholder JP McManus has given €30 million to fund a grant and scholarship scheme for disadvantaged students entering third-level education.
McManus (57), who is based in tax-free Switzerland, started up a trust to fund the Government-managed scheme to cover the fees and living expenses of 120 students in Ireland each year.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland this morning the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, praised McManus' contribution as a "good example of philanthropy".
"The third level education is also very important and access to third level education for young people is a way of ensuring we can have more social inclusion," she said.
The donation was announced shortly after it was learned that teachers from 140 primary schools are set to be cut because their class sizes have fallen slightly, therefore rendering these schools eligible for a lower number of teachers. These teachers will be redeployed.
Minister Hanafin said the global slowdown had led to the u-turn in the plan to reduce class sizes.
"We reduced the class size last year and the year before but I think everybody accepts the economic situation is not as strong as it was.
"It would be lovely to be able to reduce the class size even further; to be able to give more funding for schools; to be able to put an awful lot more into computers for schools, and that will all happen over the next few years.
"But... in the first instance the Government has a real responsibility to make sure that we keep the budget and the economy of the country on track, and that is our first responsibility.
"It's just not possible to do immediately some of the things that we set out to do and particularly because we already have two thousand additional teachers," she said.
Primary schools whose pupil numbers have dropped will lose teachers to minimise the impact on class sizes, the Minister said.