Education system aims to save €30m despite costs rising €65m

The cost of running the education system is set to rise by up to €65m next year while further savings of around €30m will still have to be found.

Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan told Oireachtas members yesterday that an increase in the number of students at every level this year and next means that it would cost far more to run the sector next year than in 2014.

Appearing for the first time before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection, she said her department would see an increase in costs of between €55m and €65m “because of demographic pressures”.

In its latest projections, the Department of Education is working on an assumption of having to cater for 30,000 more primary pupils and 12,000 more second-level students by autumn 2018.

While reluctant to give exactfigures, Ms O’Sullivan indicated that required savings of €39m on education projected for the coming year might now not have to be met in full because of the improving economic climate.

Asked whether savings to be found in the sector would now be €9m less than that currently projected, Ms O’Sullivan refused to be drawn on specifics but indicated that there may be some movement on the savings required in next month’s budget.

“There was €39m projected for the coming year. That would have been the cut if we stood still on taxation and expenditure but, thankfully, the economy has moved on,” she told the committee.

Appearing alongside Minister of State Damien English, Ms O’Sullivan added that her department is engaged in budgetary negotiations on the matter with her Cabinet colleagues.

Pressed by Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien on whether the savings would now amount to €30m instead of €39m, Ms O’Sullivan did not dismiss the amount, but added: “I cannot give you exact figures.”

Ms O’Sullivan told committee members that the gross allocation for education stood at €8.4bn this year and included €546m on capital expenditure as part of her department’s five-year school-building programme and €372m on training.

“Up to the end of August, the net expenditure stood at €5.5bn and these figures are more or less on target,” she said.

However, Ms O’Sullivan warned that the overall expenditure for the year would be “quite tight” and that the move to an October budget posed particular challenges to the education sector as it now occurred within weeks of the school year beginning.

Earlier, Ms O’Sullivan revealed it was her intention to publish the value-for-money report on small schools as quickly as possible.