Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£400M NEEDED TO FIX ULSTER SCHOOLS
Weir warning on budget £150m teacher pay plea
NORTHERN Ireland’s schools system needs at least £400million a year extra, the Education Minister claimed yesterday.
Peter Weir told a Stormont scrutiny committee the cash was needed to address a teachers’ pay dispute, improve special needs provision, bolster class budgets and finance a childcare plan.
The DUP man said settling the wage row will cost £150million, before adding he “can’t allocate money that isn’t there”.
He said there is an “oven ready” settlement already done but the funding is not yet available to finance it over the long term.
Mr Weir was speaking before a meeting with teacher unions.
He added while the Executive was expecting a “considerable increase” in the block grant in the next budget, it will not be enough to meet the demands of
Stormont departments. Mr Weir, who was addressing the committee for the first time since the restoration of power-sharing, said there was a need for a “step change” in the €2billion funding given to his department.
He added: “Certainly, several hundred million, maybe somewhere in the region of about three to four hundred million at least.” Mr Weir also claimed around £75million was needed to improve special needs provision.
And he said if the Executive moved to a model providing 30 free hours of childcare a week, it could cost £90million a year.
The minister added he was committed to department reforms that could deliver costsavings but warned they could not plug the funding hole.
Mr Weir said: “You can do all the reforms in the world and it will not come anywhere close to filling that level of gap.”