Many parents of schoolgoing children face enormous costs in their daily lives in rearing their children, and the cost of living generally remains a constant pressure on them. This is compounded, made much worse, by the cost of school activities and the ongoing need to contribute to schools' current funding requirements. Parents are fundraising left, right and centre to pay for electricity, heating and other very basic charges that schools must meet. On average, the Government gives a school approximately €46,000 a year for its operating costs against an average expenditure of approximately €91,000. This is eaten up by lighting, heating, cleaning, insurance, classroom equipment, printing, stationery and so on. Depending on the size of the school, the grant of €170 per pupil can cover between 42% and 62% of a school's costs. In other words, the smaller or more medium-sized the school, the worse the hit. They are particularly disadvantaged. What is very poor is the treatment meted out to DEIS schools, the most disadvantaged schools. The funding gap for them is very difficult and they are hardest hit because they have far less fundraising capacity, with the most needy families and pupils attending such schools.

The funding position in respect of schools is therefore clearly unsustainable. This was revealed in the Grant Thornton report published last February into the current funding issues pertaining to primary schools across the country. The programme for Government committed to annual increases in primary and capitation grants, but the Government has not implemented this commitment. The Minister has in 2018 repeated a commitment made in the 2017 Action Plan for Education, but again there has been no delivery on the commitment. The reason is that the Government is essentially punishing schools and families who fundraise. Why? The Government feels they are taking up the slack. It believes it does not need to add to or prioritise the capitation grant. It is happy to let the schools take up the matter with the various fundraisers. One principal in a small rural school, for example, fundraised for four interactive whiteboards, 15 iPads, new windows and the conversion of a boiler house and store into a learning support room. This is not an exception: such fundraising efforts are going on across the country.

Rhetoric needs to be turned into reality and increased capitation grants need to be provided for in this year's budget and on a phased basis in subsequent budgets and plans. Does the Taoiseach accept that capitation grants at current levels are wholly inadequate to fund our primary schools? Does he accept that small and medium-sized schools and DEIS schools are particularly disadvantaged by the system? Will he commit to a generous increase in capitation grants in this year's budget as the beginning of a phased programme of increases in subsequent years? We will insist on such a provision in this year's budget.

The issue of capitation will, of course, be considered in the context of the forthcoming budget. There is a programme for Government commitment to increase capitation, so it is something we intend to do. I appreciate that capitation has been cut back in recent years and, unlike many things, has not been restored. It goes towards the running costs of schools and I would be very much in favour of an increase in capitation if we could find provision for it within what is left to us in the forthcoming budget.

It is important, though, never to lose sight of the wider picture. This year, we will spend €10 billion on education, more than any Government has spent in any year since the foundation of the State. What does this mean in practice? It means we have been able to hire 5,000 extra teachers in the past two years. It means we will have the lowest pupil-teacher ratio ever from this August and September. It means we now have 15,000 special needs assistants, more than we have gardaí, for example, even though Garda numbers are increasing. In fact, we now spend more on special education than we do on third level education, and funding for the latter is now being restored as well as a consequence of budget decisions made. A massive school building programme is happening all over the country, which Deputies will know from their constituency work.

However, it is not possible to do everything, or everything one would like to do, in one year. This is why we must prioritise. What we have prioritised in recent years is new, more modern school buildings; additional teachers; a lower pupil-teacher ratio; the introduction of new subjects at leaving certificate - physical education and computer science, for example; the restoration of funding to our universities; the introduction of two years of free preschool education; and other measures, including subsidised childcare. We have seen enormous progress in the short recovery we have had in recent years in all these areas. I absolutely accept that capitation will have to be considered as part of this. However, as I said before and will say again, it is never possible to do everything one would like to do in one year and we need to be prudent.

I have seen the kinds of promises Fianna Fáil is making. It has made promises adding up to €1.6 billion just in recent months. We all know that on budget day the budget package will allow us to increase spending by approximately €3.4 billion, but €2.6 billion of this is already committed in part to measures in education, given the fact that there will be more pupils and that we need to build more schools. However, the fact that Fianna Fáil's promises add up to €1.6 billion when the discretionary package is approximately €800 million means that a reasonable person cannot have any confidence that the promises Fianna Fáil is making in respect of education or anything else can be believed.

I am entitled to raise issues of this kind, and the last person to lecture anyone on promises is the Taoiseach. He has promised billions - never mind €1.6 billion or €1.8 billion - in recent months through various announcements, set pieces and so on in respect of the NDP etc.

Order, please.

It is quite extraordinary the degree to which the Taoiseach lectures everyone else on raising issues of expenditure when only this morning another €200 million was announced by two Ministers. The Taoiseach should therefore stop the smart-aleckry about people making promises. It is absolutely our entitlement to raise this issue, as we raised the pupil-teacher ratio last year. The Taoiseach resisted that. We forced the pace on reducing the pupil-teacher ratio through confidence and supply last year. We are saying very clearly that schools, DEIS schools in particular, are in dire need because for three years the Government has not prioritised a commitment it made to raise capitation grants for pupils in primary schools and then, ultimately, it rests on parents-----

I thank the Deputy. His time is up.

-----to have to increase them.

As for the Taoiseach's comments on the largest ever expenditure, the population is growing. As it grows, education expenditure will grow. The Taoiseach should not be so self-satisfied about what the Government is doing in respect of school buildings. I could bring him to any constituency in the country, including my own-----

The Deputy's time is up.

-----and show him where there has been consistent neglect of schools that have been in the pipeline for five or six years and some poor planning decisions made. I will gladly work through this with him if he is genuinely interested in trying to get to the meat of the issue and not in the endless rhetoric that does not match the reality on the ground.

It is not fair to describe it as rhetoric. I gave the Deputy a list of facts. People, as I often say, are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. Yes, it is the case that our population is increasing. This is one of the reasons the education budget must increase too. Notwithstanding that, we have been able to hire an extra 5,000 teachers over two years and invest more in special needs education than ever before. We are building loads of new schools all over the country. I appreciate that more need to be built and many need to be refurbished. It is not possible to do all these things in one year. Something we will absolutely consider in the context of the next budget is an increase in capitation, but we will have to look at it in the round. Any promises or commitments we have made on spending have been delivered over the past seven years, and the ones we are making now will be delivered into the future. I do not make these promises on the hoof; they will only be made after proper consideration in the run-up to the budget.

It is interesting to hear Fianna Fáil Members, including Deputy Micheál Martin, claiming credit for things the Government has done. It reminds me of the "Wizard of Oz" and the man behind the curtain who claims credit for everything good that happens but no responsibility for anything else.

It sounds familiar.

I call Deputy McDonald.

Can we have order for Deputy McDonald please?

I wonder should I click my heels and say: "There's no place like home."

Red shoes - no place like home.

Where are the red shoes?

The Deputy is no stranger to marching, all right.