Mr. Hubert Loftus:

I thank the Chairman for the opportunity to respond to some of the questions. Small schools are those with fewer than 50 pupils. It is important to look at the context. They represent about 20% of all schools. They account for about 3.5% of all pupil enrolments and about 5.5% of all classroom teachers. Those figures help to put things in context, in terms of the number of schools, the level of enrolment and the additional classroom posts relative to other schools.

In terms of funding, the Department fully acknowledges there have been budgetary impacts. No Minister for Education and Skills likes to be in a position whereby the decisions on funding for schools or capitation budgets involve downward rather than upward adjustments. Like all other Departments, the Minister is operating within a difficult scenario. We are trying to manage within a budgetary programme which is trying to put our overall public finances on a sustainable footing. The best way to ensure the long-term sustainability of our finances is to address that issue.

The ongoing and significant increase in pupil numbers over recent years, which will continue into the future, has a particular impact. Over the past four years while we had various budget adjustments at primary level and we also had 27,000 additional pupils. We had to provide the school places, teachers, capitation funding and ancillary grant funding associated with that. It is a very difficult scenario within which to operate.

Reference was made to the minor works grant. It was last paid to the school system at the end of 2011. The current grant costs a total of €28 million which the Minister does not have and was unable to pay. He has committed to paying us as soon as he has the money.

There is a cap of 10,575 on the number of SNAs. The level of allocation has been below that over the past number of years. There has been no policy change in terms of the methodology for the allocation of SNAs. On resource teachers, last week the Minister announced resource teaching support will remain at this year's level. There will be a consequential budgetary impact from that. There has been speculation in the media on the impact that might have on the PTR at primary level. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on such speculation in advance of budget 2014. The overall position is that a decision will be made by the Government on how it will achieve the necessary savings to manage its budget.

Reference was made as to whether the PTR is a very blunt instrument. The same could be said of the points system at third level. The other side of the coin is that it is a very fair instrument and is open and transparent. A school comprising 40 or 50 pupils, whether it is in Cork, Kerry, Galway or Roscommon, gets the same number of teachers from the Department irrespective of where it is located. It is a very fair and objective way to allocate staff resources. If the methodology is changed it would have an impact on allocations.

Mr. Lally and I were both part of the team which prepared the small schools value for money report. It is very comprehensive and examines many of the issues mentioned today, such as ethos, the stock of schools and how many schools are located within a short distance from each other. It also examines issues such as amalgamation. The report has been completed and has been with the Minister for the past three weeks.

Given that it is a comprehensive report, it will take time for the Minister to consider it and he will want to consult his Government colleagues. He is fully committed to publishing the report. All such reports are published in a standard manner. It is something I have no doubt the committee will devote some time to in the future when it is published and will have a full and comprehensive debate. A lot of detailed analysis is set out in it.

In terms of issues like immigration and the impact on PTR, the staffing schedule for the 2013-14 school year has been published. The phased increases have been set out and there will be no change. The staffing appeals process introduced last year enables schools which are due to lose a classroom post to be able to retain it if their projected enrolments for September 2013 achieve the required level.