After years of dramatic growth in spending, the education sector was last night coming to terms with a modest 8 per cent increase in its allocation for next year.
The Minister for Education,Mary Hanafin, is expected to trumpet the €9 billion-plus Budget secured for education as the best deal in troubled economic times at a special press conference on the Budget's education measures this morning.
But the teacher unions were already signalling their concern about the outlook for 2008 last night.
John Carr of the INTO called education "the first casualty of this Budget", claiming that the real increase in education spending is 2 per cent.
Half of this, he said, will go to provide extra schools and classrooms needed to prevent another Balbriggan in north Dublin, where new children struggled to find places last September.
"This Budget will leave schools trying to bale out a sinking ship with a leaky bucket," he said.
Reaction from the other teaching unions was also critical. The Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland said there was no sign of any measure to address the significant deficit in educational spending, while the Teachers' Union of Ireland focused on what they called the "lack of support" for special needs education.
This morning, the Minister will be under pressure to explain how the increases will allow her to deliver on the Government's commitment to reduce average class size to 24 within three years.
Total expenditure on education in 2008 will be €9.3 billion, including €828 million for capital investment.
The Budget includes an additional €95 million in capital funding for primary schools; this will help provide new schools for the estimated 13,000 extra pupils seeking places next year.
In his Budget speech, Mr Cowen said this "rate of increase in enrolment poses a major challenge for the education system".
The challenge facing Ms Hanafin is to expand existing services, reduce class size and improve special needs education while still catering for this additional school population. Other capital funding for education includes €184 million for infrastructural investment at third level. Other features include;
An additional €12 million for research in third-level institutions to continue to roll out the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation;
An additional €23.3 million in 2008 for increases in the grants paid to meet non-pay costs and other services in schools; and
An extra €26 million for temporary accommodation in schools, to meet demands for short-term accommodation arising from increased school enrolment, particularly in rapidly developing areas.
