EDUCATION: The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has severely curtailed capital funding to third-level institutions in a move which has caused great unease in colleges.
In a marked change of policy, Mr Dempsey has decided to give a higher priority to primary and second-level schools and special needs.
However, as expected, several hundred school-building projects at both primary and second-level are expected to be deferred or put on hold after a cut in capital funding. The capitation grant - which pays for the running costs of schools - is being frozen at 2002 levels.
The other main features of the education Estimates were:
A 24 per cent cut in capital funding for universities, and a 33 per cent cut in capital projects in the institutes of technology;
A 98 per cent increase in funding for special needs assistants working with special needs pupils at primary level. This should mean 5,000 new special needs assistants in the schools system;
Information technology programmes in schools have been cut by 60 per cent.
Funding in the third-level sector is trimmed back severely.
The Estimates mark the end of a decade of unparalleled growth and investment in the third-level sector.
With the school-leaving population expected to decline by more than 30 per cent in the next decade, further cutbacks can be expected in the third-level sector. University heads will be very disappointed with the cuts.
The Programme for Government acknowledged that infrastructural facilities in colleges had not kept pace with the expansion in student numbers and it promised to rectify matters. It appears, however, that this promise will now be broken.
Funding for capital projects at primary level has been cut by 4 per cent, with a 10 per cent cut at second-level. When one factors in the level of building inflation in Ireland these cuts are more savage.
The cutbacks in capital supports at primary level means many new schools will not be built and urgent repair work to others - which was promised before the election - could be delayed.
In overall terms, however, Mr Dempsey has emerged relatively well from the Estimates process. Overall funding, now at €5.6 billion, is up by 3 per cent. Moreover, he has broadly succeeded in protecting programmes which are designed to help the disadvantaged and those with special needs.
Funding is up by 10 per cent for primary education; by 5 per cent for the second-level sector; and by 4 per cent at third-level.
Mr Dempsey has been particularly successful in securing new funds for primary education.
He is strongly of the view that stronger investment in primary education is the best way to tackle educational disadvantage.
Last night, the INTO's general secretary, Mr John Carr, expressed concern about the scaling back of building projects, but he backed the Minister's apparent effort to help the disadvantaged.
The INTO is seeking an urgent meeting with Mr Dempsey to clarify how the cuts in building work will affect work on the 100 schools which are on its "black list".
Mr Carr said it appeared pupils and teachers in these schools would have to continue with appalling accommodation standards.
Ms Fionnuala Kilfeather, head of the National Parents' Council (primary branch), said she was very disappointed with the cuts in the primary building programme.
"It is a short-sighted decision which will hurt vulnerable pupils," she said.
She said a package of education measures - agreed among the education partners - was needed, not "piecemeal changes" introduced each year through the Estimates process.