Education:Total State spending on education next year will be €9.3 billion, including €828 million for capital investment, Minister for Finance Brian Cowen said.
Delivering his 2008 Budget, Mr Cowen said he believed the first priority for educational expenditure next year must be to provide new accommodation to cater for the 13,000 additional children who will be seeking a school place in 2008.
"This rate of increase in enrolments poses a major challenge for the education system. Accordingly, I am allocating an additional €95 million in capital funding for the Primary School Building Programme in 2008. This will bring to €594 million the total budget that will be available for infrastructural investment in schools next year," he said.
Other capital funding for education includes €184 million for infrastructural investment at third level and €50 million for smaller programmes.
Mr Cowen said that over the last three years, over €2 billion has been invested in educational infrastructure. "With this funding we have delivered 28 new schools, with construction under way at a further 16 new schools.
"We have delivered 77 large-scale refurbishments or extensions of existing schools, with construction in progress at a further 44 schools. This is in addition to over 1,300 small-scale projects delivered in 2006 and over 1,500 in 2007."
Mr Cowen said construction work this year will deliver over 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for over 17,500 pupils.