Sept 28, 2022, Kilkenny People: Budget 2023 cuts the cost of education for families – Phelan https://www.kilkennypeople.ie/news/home/922784/budget-2023-cuts-the-cost-of-education-for-families-phelan.html
Budget 2023 cuts the cost of education to help pupils, students, and their families, according to Fine Gael TD, John Paul Phelan.
Speaking as the Budget was announced, Deputy Phelan said: “Budget 2023 is a Cost of Living Budget, designed to help you and your family, with measures for the most vulnerable and the squeezed middle. One of the key priorities is to help reduce the cost of education. “For example, we are helping with the cost of putting a child through school. From September 2023, all primary school children will receive free school books. This was a Fine Gael commitment in our election manifesto and something that was piloted under a Fine Gael Minister for Education.
“We are also determined to support those who need it most. My colleague Minister Josepha Madigan has also secured the largest ever Special Education Budget in the history of the State of €2.6 billion, a 10% increase on last year. Fine Gael committed to prioritising Special Education in this Government appointing Minister Madigan as the first ever Minister of Special Education and Inclusion and that commitment is clear in this year’s budget.
“It allows for an additional 370 new Special classes, meaning over 2,000 more children will have access to a place and a substantial increase in the budget for the NCSE, who will see their grant increased by nearly €13 million [$12.7M], almost double their annual budget. The number of Special Needs Assistants will grow by nearly 1,200 achieving Minister Madigan’s commitment of well over 20,000 SNA’s for the first time ever, almost double the number of SNA’s in 2011 when Fine Gael came into office….
Kilkenny TD John Paul Phelan