At their traditional Easter conference over the coming days teachers will demand more funding for schools, better pay and conditions as well as reductions in class sizes and generally greater resources for education.
This all comes as within Government a serious row has been raging over existing spending levels.
Minister for Education Hildegarde Naughton is insisting the sector has to be “properly funded”.
The implication is that a substantial increase in the core education budget is required to get away from a system where bailouts of hundreds of millions of euro have had to be provided annually.
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The Department of Public Expenditure, headed by Jack Chambers, however, is deeply concerned at education overspending. Increasing staffing numbers, growing costs of special needs education and a doubling in the amount spent on school transport are among its concerns.
By itself, this dispute is not new. In the last four years the Department of Education has received more than €3.4 billion in supplementary funding, including over €500 million last year and €1.09 billion in 2024.
However, the circumstances have changed. Under new Government spending rules, such midyear supplementary estimates are banned.
The Irish Times reported last month that a projected €500 million-plus education deficit this year could have to be filled by other Ministers having to dip into their own budgets – a move likely to infuriate other members of the Cabinet.
Relations between the Department of Education and the Department of Public Expenditure on foot of the funding/deficit row were described by one senior figure close to Government this week as “hostile”.
Some in Government point out that Naughton inherited the budget problem as she was appointed only in November.
From Naughton’s perspective, education is a constitutional right and has always been seen as demand-led, with teacher levels linked to student numbers.
She is understood to have argued her department has needed additional resources in recent years to support cost-of-living measures and to meet increased demand for essential education services.
“Since 2003, there are over 200,000 extra children in the system. In the last five years alone, there have been an additional 38,000 students in classrooms. Increases in children with additional needs, now one in four or 240,000 children, have driven an unprecedented expansion in special education. There are 16 new special schools, 4,000 new special classes, and thousands of additional teachers and special needs assistants,” a spokeswoman for the Minister said.
“Cost-of-living increases requiring higher capitation funding for schools. Additional capital allocations to enable school building projects to proceed. These investments have delivered important services, but they have also significantly increased the Department of Education’s baseline costs,” she said.
The Department of Public Expenditure has been concerned for some time, in particular about special needs education and school transport.
Chambers was told by officials last year that “despite expectations in the sector that demographic trends will reduce cost pressures, particularly at primary level, there continues to be significant overspends in various areas by the Department of Education”.
“Pay expenditure in the Department of Education is consistently ahead of profile and is the main contributor to the overspend.”
The Department of Public Expenditure insisted last year the deficits would have implications for plans to reduce the pupil-teacher ratio.
It argued the Department of Education “must address overspends on the vote [the technical term for its official expenditure] before considering any further reductions to the primary or post primary staffing schedules”.
“In addition, they must be mindful of the trade-offs involved in prioritising one policy area over another given the pressures apparent across the vote, notably special educational needs demographic pressures.”
Chambers’ officials maintained that expenditure on special education was increasing year on year, up by about €1.1 billion or 69 per cent since 2017, driven primarily driven by the growing incidence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnoses.
“Previously the National Council for Special Education had been working on an ASD prevalence rate of 1.5 per cent of the school going population. However, new evidence and data on the ground is showing that the actual prevalence rate may be closer to approx 3.5 per cent.”
The Department of Public Expenditure also said some previously agreed special education reforms had not been implemented. As a result, officials said, “the future policy direction has become unclear”.
This appeared to be a reference to plans to create an “inclusive” education system, where all children with special needs would be educated in local mainstream schools instead of separate special classes or special schools.
The Department of Public Expenditure has also been concerned that the cost of transporting children to schools had more than doubled to about €500 million since 2019.
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This is linked to a degree to special need education. Chambers’ officials said students enrolled in a special class or special school had an automatic entitlement to free school transport, accounting for 54 per cent of expenditure.
The budget pressures also likely explain the reintroduction of fees for State examinations this year. These had been waived as part of Government cost-of-living initiatives but there was concern in the Department of Public Expenditure there would be pressure for the €12 subsidy to become permanent.
