Today has been designated walk to school day. I see the Minister for Education and Science has not made it yet.

He is walking around in circles.

I hope he is not setting out from County Meath. For many children who are walking to school, very often it is not actually a school they are going to, it is a leaky hall, maybe rat-infested, as the school has not yet been built.

Come off it.

This is a long story.

Indeed it is. Perhaps it is also a school—

Deputy Sargent, without interruption please.

It is a fairy tale.

Perhaps it is also a school in which the plans for their extension have been frozen, permanently it seems, by the Department of Education and Science. It may also be a substandard school, of which there are many around the country. It may also be a school in which the overcrowded classrooms make it very difficult to get through the day or it may be a school in which the teacher does not have the qualifications required for the job.

On top of all that, is the Taoiseach aware that the ESRI is not pulling any punches in its budget prospectus of 2004, when it says that Irish children at pre-school or primary school – and these are its words – get a level of funding that is very low by European standards? I know the Taoiseach has a briefing that tells us that he has doubled spending on primary level in the past decade, but the reality is that we still invest far less than many EU states and as a country we still have a very young age profile. When will the Taoiseach address his Government's failures which have clearly been set out by the ESRI? It stated that the identification of best practice in countering disadvantage in the Irish context has been hindered by the lack of systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of existing measures. In other words, we do not have a co-ordinated coherent, competent Government. It is all over the shop when it comes to education and children are suffering for it. It is a damning assessment of the Taoiseach's platitudes on disadvantage. It is a strange and classic contrast that he is able to arrange cosy chats with the head of Shell Oil—

The Deputy's two minutes are concluded.

—at the drop of a hat to help him increase his profits further and he does not even have a vote in the country. Yet the Taoiseach cannot meet and deal with the questions of education. The 1999 White Paper on early childhood education recommended the establishment of an early childhood education agency. Four years later will the Taoiseach be establishing such an agency and how long do we have to wait?

Deputy Sargent obviously wants to try to run down our education service.

The Taoiseach is doing a good job himself.

The Taoiseach without interruption, please.

He quoted a few figures that he made up but I will give him the true figures.

The ESRI does not make up its figures.

Deputy Sargent, allow the Taoiseach, please.

I will give the worldwide OECD figures.

Sorry, Deputy Sargent, you had your opportunity. Allow the Taoiseach without interruption, please.

I am being misrepresented, a Cheann Comhairle.

The small print in the ESRI report states that we must keep our fiscal and monetary position very tight and we should cut back far more on public expenditure. Deputy Sargent forgot to quote that bit in his preface.

It is all in the small print.

On the OECD indicators for this year, Ireland ranked fifth of the 32 OECD countries in reading literacy in primary schools, we ranked ninth in overall literacy and 15th out of 27 in mathematical literacy. In disadvantaged education we have now targeted provision and this year there are resource teachers in almost 2,300 schools. We now have 3,500 more teachers at primary level – we will leave out post-primary because Deputy Sargent did not raise that; we now have a pupil-teacher ratio at primary level that is down to 19:1, a historic figure which helps children in disadvantaged areas.

Is the Taoiseach happy with that?

Yes, I am. It is an enormous achievement, as is the fact that we are spending about €300 million a year improving our schools. When I came into Government there were four contracts for education in the whole country, now there are several hundred. A large number of new schools opened last September. We now have proper resource teachers, and teachers dealing with disadvantage. We have more walking principals and school liaison principals. Things have improved dramatically since Deputy Sargent was in a classroom and he should acknowledge that. They are the facts. We will continue to do this.

If the Deputy has any other good ideas other than raw criticism about how the teachers are working hard in the education system, I would like to hear it. Does he have something against what is going on in his profession?

I have plenty of good ideas.

Deputy Ryan, allow Deputy Sargent without interruption.

I expected the Taoiseach would paint a picture of expenditure without referring to the essential criticism made by the ESRI which is that it is money that has not been well spent. The expenditure was not co-ordinated and it has not produced the results that it ought to have produced. That is an issue the Taoiseach will make more difficult because I ask him whether he is going to proceed with the estimated 1,000 cuts in education as part of 5,000 job cuts in the public service. Based on the ESRI report, is that his intention and, if so, how does he expect to address the damning figures of 90,000 children living in consistent poverty and the increase in relative poverty from 15% in 1994 to the present level of 22% as outlined by the Combat Poverty Agency? Does the Taoiseach accept that if he goes ahead with these cuts – 1,000 in education – politically he will be a dead man walking going into the next election? Nearly ten years after the UN Year of the Family and with the advent of the Irish Presidency of the European Union, is he prepared to see education further disadvantaged in real terms?

The Deputy's minute is concluded.

Will he answer my question about the early childhood education agency once and for all? Will it be established?

The Government is in favour of the proposals for early childhood education. The Minister for Education and Science outlined a number of initiatives—

Will the Government implement it?

—recently and has also put forward figures to resource them. This year again there will be several thousand additional teaching posts. There are some areas of education where there are not as many as the Minister would have wished and we cannot do anything about that. The Minister can only work with the resources that are available to him. He would like to invest more in some aspects of education. There are almost 3,500 more teachers at primary level; that is a significant number.

There are more children too.

There are approximately 3,500 additional special needs assistants helping in the education system. In numerous other ways the Government has put extra resources into education and they are all being maintained. There is only one area where the numbers are reduced and that is in the assessment of some areas of special needs where the staff are not required because the case they put forward has moved on and I believe the Deputy is aware of that fact.

Suffer the little children.

It is still abuse.

This year the Minister has again been given a significant budget for pre-school, after school and other schemes in disadvantaged areas, although it is admittedly not as high as he would like and he has made that clear. They are significant resources. There are no cutbacks in education.

No cuts? What about the 1,000 cuts?

More money is being spent on education this year than last year. There are more posts in education such as teaching posts and assistants. The capital programme is still a healthy figure, if not as big as it was last year.