–the reintroduction of third level fees and the responsibility vis-à-vis students accessing third level. That is his responsibility.

On third level fees, the Minister has already made it clear that he is examining the position of access to education to try to make sure we can give a higher proportion of people, particularly from disadvantaged areas, the opportunity for third level education. For 2003, the education Estimate on the current side is €5.1 billion, which represents an increase of €290 million, 6% over the Estimate for last year. The capital programme will continue and the level of investment provided in the current Estimate will maintain existing services. We will not be able to build at the level at which we built in recent years – I have already given the figures.

There is also increased provision for a number of other areas in education including resource teachers, special needs teachers, school retention initiatives generally and adult literacy. The Minister has clearly given priority to helping the less well off by putting money into education for the disadvantaged. Deputy Ó Caoláin will also be pleased to see that €508 million, which is a large amount of money, is being put into the capital programme. Over coming years we will continue to try to assist those schools that cannot be dealt with this year.