Figures released this week show that the schools crises affecting Dublin West and other parts of the country could have been averted if the allocated money had actually been spent!

The Department of Education and Science has somehow managed to underspend its annual budgets by more than €500 million over an eight-year period. In the year 2000 alone, the department underspent by a total of €100 million.
Deputy Joan Burton expressed her anger at the implications of this underspend for schools in Dublin West:
‘Over eight years in office, this government has consistently failed to use the resources it has to bring down class sizes. As the Irish National Teacher Union has rightly pointed out, if this money had been used to hire extra primary teachers then class sizes could have been brought down years ago to 20:1. If this money had been spent as it should have been, the lack of facilities in the schools of Dublin West would also have been addressed.
The news of this underspend will infuriate many parents in Dublin West who have been campaigning and marching for the last six years. Minister Brian Lenihan has been in denial about the extent of the underspend on education in Dublin West. It is high time he accepted that his party colleagues in the Department of Education are not doing their jobs’.