Marie Lindsay warns schools face ‘astronomical deficits’ amid looming funding crisis

Transcript

00:00I think all three of us are members of governors in our various schools and we've all had to be

00:04doing these three-year financial plans and all schools, those that were in healthy positions

00:11prior to this, those that weren't in healthy positions, are facing astronomical deficits

00:15over their three-year plan. This is a crisis, this needs addressed and while there are pressing

00:23issues and we're talking about EA and the integrated teams and the fact that there

00:27isn't an input from health, absolutely, but we've got to deal with the pressing priority

00:32of investment in education in order to be able to get, and I sit as a member of the EA,

00:37I recently joined member of the EA, to get to the more, what you say, bread and butter issues like

00:43getting health and education working together on these integrated teams. So Robin's point is well

00:48made, we're seeing this across all schools and I see others who are familiar with the financial

00:52plans that are coming in from our schools. We are in crisis, the system is in crisis,

00:58we need investment and we need it quickly. Education needs funded and it is education,

01:03not just schools, but schools are in dire position, but it is education needs funded properly. In our

01:10report we make many recommendations, we do highlight those that are cost neutral, we do

01:15highlight where there's potential savings, we do highlight where there's additional costs,

01:19but if we do not invest in education, the precipice is with us and we need to be conscious

01:27of that. Just going back to a point you were making earlier, Pat, about the south of Ireland,

01:33the biggest difference between us and the south of Ireland is that they really have invested in

01:37education. Can I just add a footnote to that? One of the most startling figures that I think maybe

01:45shocked all of us when we were writing our report was that the failing to intervene early

01:52cost the public purse £536 million per annum and the cost per annum for those who are not in

02:00education, employment or training, £134 million. You know, how can we afford that? We need to think

02:08about investment and it was just a footnote to what Robin has been saying.