St. Gabriel's special school in Bishopstown, County Cork, provides education for 43 special needs children with very severe and profound diagnoses of autism. That includes intellectual disability with autism, probably the most severe and profound condition that is catered for in the education system. These are children who should be our number one priority, but they are being neglected by the Government in their need for a new school building. The parents say they feel forgotten. The existing school building has huge issues. It is substandard. The bathroom is not big enough for wheelchairs to fit, there is no hot running water, the roof leaks, there are no dedicated toilets for children with medical needs, there is a lack of infection control and the sensory room is in a windowless outbuilding. I could go on. The parents are now crowdfunding for €200,000. Parents of a school of 43 children with severe and profound conditions are attempting to raise €200,000 to carry out repairs to make the school habitable.

That school is illustrative of many other schools throughout the country, both special schools and mainstream primary schools. Parents all over the country are raising money for the day-to-day expenditure needed to keep schools going. Quite simply, the capitation grant is not anywhere near sufficient to meet the costs of running a school. According to the chief inspector's report, spending per pupil in Ireland is less than the European Union average or Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, average. According to a recent Grant Thornton report, the capitation grant now covers approximately 52% of the cost of running a school, depending on whether the school is small, medium or large. In all cases however, we are looking at situations where the capitation is much less than what is actually necessary. The average capitation grant of €46,000 in 2016 was clearly insufficient to meet the average general expenditure costs of about €91,000. This includes the heating expenditure and all the basic operational costs. Voluntary schools at secondary level are in a similar situation. I visited several secondary schools recently. Maintenance costs are a big issue for them. They do not have the day-to-day resources to meet them.

The programme for Government includes a commitment to multi-annual increases in capitation grants and funding for schools under a number of headings, but it has not been implemented. Last year we forced the Government to act on the pupil-teacher ratio as part of the confidence and supply agreement, but the Government was resistant on the issue of capitation for some reason. I would say there are three ways to bring some ease to schools. One is to commit in the next budget to a phased increase in the capitation rate for schools. Second, the minor works grant scheme should be a permanent feature as a non-discretionary payment to schools by the Government and this should be provided for statutorily as an annual payment, not just something that may happen next year or the following year. Similarly, summer work schemes should be annual and should be fixed in order that schools can plan with some degree of certainty as to the income that will help them to meet the day-to-day running costs and repair and maintenance costs.

This year the Government will invest €10 billion in education, the highest ever spending on education in the history of the State. In fact, €1 billion more is being spent on education this year than when the current Government of Fine Gael, the Independent Alliance and Independent Members came to office. That is money well spent. It is taxpayers' money invested in our children and in education. It is invested in giving them the best opportunities in life and ensuring they can access the best jobs when they grow up and become adults. That involves a lot of investment in school buildings as well. I cannot comment on the individual case that Deputy Martin raised but we have seen an enormous amount of new school building all around the country. My own constituency, a very rapidly developing area, has had a number of new schools built, including secondary schools and primary schools. The quality of those buildings is really excellent. I also have seen extensions built all over the country.

In the case of large projects, 340 large projects have been delivered since 2011 and 175,000 additional school places have been provided, recognising the growth in our population and the current demographic bulge. We have 6,000 additional teachers working in our education system and 3,000 additional special needs assistants, SNAs. We now invest more in special education than we do in higher education. Some 150 new autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units are being provided per year, which is an enormous investment. As Deputy Micheál Martin mentioned, the pupil-teacher ratio has been reduced.

There is a commitment in the programme for Government to increase capitation funding in the next several years and there is a commitment in the Action Plan for Education to do the same.

Even the wealthiest countries, those that are doing well economically, as we are, cannot do everything they would like to do in any one year. When it comes to capital projects - new schools, refurbishments and extensions - it will always be the case that there will be a pipeline of projects. It is never possible to do every project and everything one would like to do in education, health or any similar area in a given year. One has to prioritise and last year in particular we prioritised new schools where they were needed, increased teacher numbers, reduced the pupil-teacher ratio, and introduced new examination subjects such as physical education and computer science. As part of the budget, which is five months away, we will consider an increase in capitation in line with the commitment made in the programme for Government.

I also ask the main Opposition party to tell us what its priorities are because I hear its education spokesperson demanding more spending on new school buildings one day, the next day demanding full pay restoration or full pay equality for young teachers and the following day demanding an increase in capitation. All of that does not add up and Deputy Micheál Martin knows as well as I do that one cannot deliver all of those things in one year. What is Fianna Fáil's priority? What would it put first? Would it be capitation, capital spending for new schools or pay equalisation for new teachers, because it cannot be all three? What is its priority?

We put our priorities into the confidence and supply agreement. The reduction in the pupil-teacher ratio would not have occurred if it had not been provided for in the confidence and supply agreement. Fine Gael resisted the reduction, just as it resisted the National Treatment Purchase Fund.

Fianna Fáil no longer has confidence in the Government.

Likewise, the Fine Gael Party resisted postgraduate grants which we put into the confidence and supply agreement. The same applied to ex quota career guidance counsellors. There would have been no movement on career guidance counselling if I had not insisted that, despite Fine Gael objections, it be included in the confidence and supply agreement.

I am not interested in a tit-for-tat argument about who does what better. The parents of 43 children with severe and profound diagnoses of intellectual disability and autism do not want a figure of €10 billion thrown at them. They want a new school and a sense that somebody is listening to and aware of them because right now they do not have any such sense. I have met these parents. That is the problem and this is not about Deputies in a debating Chamber saying, "I will do it better than you do it", but about responding to real need.

Last week, a list of 42 new schools was published. No one went looking for two of the schools in Cork that feature on the list, yet a school that has been seeking a new building for three or four years is not on any goddamn list. Does the Taoiseach understand the frustration of parents when faced with the juxtaposition of the Government publishing a fantasy list claiming it will build new schools in three or four years' time, while at the same time it cannot even get around to providing habitable conditions for children who have been diagnosed with severe and profound intellectual disabilities?

The Taoiseach wants to know what my party's priorities are. Last year, we said our priorities were reducing the pupil-teacher ratio and increasing capitation. An increase in capitation is possible. It is unsustainable for schools to survive and meet their ongoing day-to-day running costs from the capitation grant they receive.

We need more time for this discussion.

This is a simple and valid point, which the Government acknowledged three years ago in its programme for Government but which it has not implemented.

The confidence and supply agreement was not resisted; it was agreed. It was a negotiation. As is the case with any negotiation, one tries to agree what is possible and cuts one cloth to suit one's measure. What is wholly dishonest in politics is when people go around the country promising every interest group they will do everything they ask this year. That is not possible.

That sounds like Project Ireland 2040.

That is what Deputy Micheál Martin's party is doing.

Deputy McLoughlin knows all about that.

Please allow the Taoiseach to continue without interruption.

As is always the case, the truth hurts. That is what Deputy Micheál Martin's party is doing and I am keeping a record of all the promises his spokespersons are making as the weeks go by. Hundreds of millions in extra spending are being promised every week for every interest group and it is all being promised now. That is exactly the kind of philosophy that landed this country in the hole out of which we had to take it a number of years ago.

What does the Taoiseach say?

Deputies may not like the answers but I have no control over them.

We have delivered. We delivered on the pupil-teacher ratio, guidance counsellors, extra teachers, pay restoration and additional schools. I welcome Deputy Micheál Martin's clarity that capitation is Fianna Fáil's priority in education spending, not the other promises Deputy Thomas Byrne has been making to other groups in education.

They are all needed.

There is one issue on which I disagree with Deputy Micheál Martin. It is important that we plan for new schools in four or five years' time and the Department of Education and Skills, under this Government, is much better at planning for schools than it used to be because we now look at demographics and child benefit.