It seems silly in one way alright but many of the schools are critically falling apart.
better to spend a little now to save in future.

it's not bizarre to discuss the issue of a critical underspend in an OECD country. The issue of ensuring a decent quality of life for a nation is
based in how we fund our health and education systems.

The fact that we got a man sitting on a 396million euro pot when theres rats in school yards and poor sanitation in prefabs would point to
the ongoing failure of FF to prioritise anything but the bankers and illiterate novelists amongst themselves. (Ahern btw)

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Fianna Fáil never did get the concept of infrastructural development beyond how to destroy the culture and quality of life of a nation. The
whole thing just stinks of inability to manage and plan for the needs of a nation.

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If the Dept of Education cant find a home for this money then they should not be pressuried into wasting it.
They are the ones responsible for allocating money to the most worthy causes within education.
And if they dont see the need to spend it then its fine by me.
The Gov have already wasted enough billions of our taxpayers money so no more please.
Satisfying this kind of pressure by interest groups has got us into the mess we are in

I am far more interested in finding out if this has been happening since 2006 .

Because one of the things I (and lots of other women ) vote on is decent education and good quality infrastructure. It is not the pressure
of interest groups but ensuring that the money that is ear-marked for education is correctly managed and spent.

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Do they forget that they are affecting real children's everyday lives (and the whole of their lives ahead of them). Can't think of anything more important.

Does the not giving a fck include the JCP do you think Dot?

The Junior Coalition Partner: education was one of the highest priorities for voters and well they know it:
Minister urged to use unspent €396m on school projects - The Irish Times - Fri, Oct 09, 2009

I quit ages ago...

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Ranking health or education spending in terms of GDP can be somewhat misleading for Ireland. The GNP and GDP for most countries is very close. There's a particularly big difference between these in Ireland's case because of the multinational sector (about a 20% difference). GNP is a better indicator of the country's wealth. If one ranked Ireland's education or health spending in relation to GNP we'd do a lot better. We'd be fairly close to average OECD spending levels. I would guess much of our problems rise because an inordinate proportion of these budgets in Ireland go on staffing costs.

Wife: 'Hi honey, I am back from the supermarket - just done the weekly shopping'
Hubby: 'Oh great, did you get everything?'
Wife: 'Yes, but funny, my budget was €200 but I only spent €150 ! '
Hubby: 'What! You silly person. You know you have to spend €200 every week. What went wrong?'
Wife: 'Well, prices have come down and I have everything we need and given that we are broke, in negative equity and the banks are trying to reposess the house, I though you would be pleased'
Hubby: 'No I am not pleased at all. This is not a saving - its an underspend. Our budget is €200 so just go spend it - the other problems have their own budgets and are unrelated to this budget.'
Wife: 'But...'