Departmental Schemes Dail Éireann — 2021-06-03 ============================================================ Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath As I have said, Deputy O'Sullivan makes a very strong case. The budget for the Department of Education is approximately €8.9 billion this year, which is an increase of 5%. With such a strong budget, one hopes something could be worked out. We will try to press the case for the Deputy. Teaching children and giving them this skill as opposed to them watching television, etc. can last for their lives. We hope it brings them closer to culture and broadens their minds. The Deputy has set out a very strong case. I will raise it again, as I committed to do, with the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, and with the Minister, Deputy Foley. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2021-06-03/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:22+00:00 Sitting date: 2021-06-03