Sandra Overend, Ulster Unionist Party Education spokesperson and former Deputy Chair of the Stormont Education committee, has said that the outgoing Minister John O’Dowd has left a budgetary mess at the Department of Education.

Mrs Overend said:

“The joint statement from the group representing the post-primary schools highlights an issue which Minister O’Dowd must have wished had gone away until after the election.  In his time as Minister, there has been a yearly crisis surrounding the Aggregated Schools Budget- the money that goes directly to front-line teaching services in schools.  Previously he always found extra money from behind the Departmental sofa, but this time he is leaving the problem for someone else to sort out.

 “Back in January at Question Time in the Assembly, I directly asked the Minister to make a commitment that the Aggregated Schools Budget would not be cut in the 2016-17 budget.  He would not give me such a commitment, despite both Sinn Féin and the DUP boasting about what a great budget settlement they had agreed for 2016/2017.

“Then in March at the committee, the Minister was questioned about the imminent extra pressures on school budgets including pay increases, pension contributions and National Insurance contributions, but he plainly stated that he had decided that schools would have to absorb these extra costs themselves.  Quite clearly, the stated 0.8% decrease in the Aggregated Schools Budget is a vast underestimation.

“The Ulster Unionist Party has consistently said that under Sinn Féin, the Education budget has been a mess, with yearly crises.  The easy line the Minister trots out about blaming Westminster austerity has been worn out.  This is a Sinn Féin/ DUP budget and those parties who supported it must take responsibility for the latest budget crisis for schools.”