Fine Gael today launched a stinging rebuke to Minister for Education Mary Hanafin after she claimed the Opposition party's plans would increase school class sizes.
Minister Mary Hanafin said there were "major differences" between the parties and she noted Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny made no mention of class sizes in his Contract for a Better Ireland.
Despite ongoing concern about class sizes and facilities, Ms Hanafin proclaimed the Government's record education as one of her party's "proudest achievements".
"We have trebled investment in our schools. We have put 10,000 extra teachers in place. And services for children with special needs have been dramatically improved," Ms Hanafin said.
The largest school building programme in the history of the State had taken place and an extra 45,000 third level places had been since the party took office ten years ago, she said.
She said the party's Next Step Forwardpolicy would see a €250-million investment in primary schools with 4,000 extra teachers and a doubling of funding for day-to-day costs leading to smaller class sizes.
The party made similar commitments on second level education with the promise of €250 million in for information technology and a reduction in class sizes for Irish, English and Maths.
Ms Hanafin said Fine Gael were only promising €100 million for primary schools which would lead to a net loss relative to the 2,000 needed to maintain class sizes at their present level.
"So with Fine Gael only offering 1,000, class sizes would simply have to rise if they got into government," the Minister said.
The claim drew a hostile response from Fine Gael education spokeswoman Olwyn Enright who said Fianna Fáil's plan "had more holes in it than a bag of Hula Hoops".
Ms Enright ridiculed Ms Hanafin's claim that Fianna Fáil's plans had been costed in their election manifesto and the National Development Plan (NDP).
"The fact is that only a handful of the Fianna Fáil manifesto commitments are costed in their document, and there are big gaps in NDP funding as well," Ms Enright said.
She said the NDP makes no mention of reducing second level class sizes nor does it commit to more ancillary staff such as therapists and clerical workers.
Meanwhile, the Green Party challenged the other parties to explain how they would increase investment in education while lowering income taxes.
Party leader Trevor Sargent his party would invest €1 billion under its policy 50 steps to a Better Education System, which, he said, was fully costed and represented "the best investment we can make in the future of the country".
"We would like other parties to state today exactly how important investment in education is to them and how they would fund it; from our calculations we find it difficult to reconcile across-the-board tax cuts with the spending on public services that this country desperately needs," Mr Sargent said.