Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss the new regulations on allocation of resource hours and teachers in primary schools.

Investment in education is critically important, particularly at primary level. The education that children receive in their formative years is the foundation block for their future. While I recognise in the current economic environment that the Minister has to juggle scarce resources with an ever decreasing budget, it is important that we continue to provide a comprehensive support network to ensure no child is left behind in our education system. We have made considerable progress in reducing the barriers to education for all children and the benefits are tangible. This is recognised in the OECD 2012 report on equity and quality in education. However, the report also warns that there is still room for improvement. In reading, almost 17.2% of students in Ireland performed at below level two on PISA in 2009, compared similarly to the OECD average of 18.8%.

Despite our economic circumstances we need to continue our efforts to ensure that children leaving school are better equipped to secure employment opportunities and to reduce the number of children opting out of the education system at an early stage. Shortly before the Minister announced the teaching allocations for September 2012, I attended a public meeting in Ennis organised by the INTO which was attended by more than 600 parents, teachers and members of the local community. The meeting was very well organised and I listened attentively to the genuine concerns that were raised. I assured those present that I would bring their concerns to the Minister's attention.

There is widespread concern about the future of small schools. As someone who attended a small school which closed in the 1970s, I recognise the value and importance of small schools to their communities. I will be visiting a number of smaller schools over the next several weeks to discuss the situation at first hand.

I welcome the decision by the Minister to retain the 235 legacy posts in DEIS schools and I was glad to hear that two posts under threat in Kilrush will now be retained.

The biggest issue that has been raised with me since the teaching allocations were announced is the combining of learning support and language support, and the fact that schools are no longer able to combine resource hours with GAM hours. This is posing considerable difficulties for schools, particularly rural schools, with the fear that teachers will now spend more time travelling the roads than teaching in the class room, particularly given that a base school will now be required to have at least 15 RT hours to hold its base school status. I cite the example of Kilshanny national school, which is a base school in north Clare. In order to retain the resource teacher, it has formed a cluster with neighbouring schools in Doolin and Lisdoonvarna. While individually, Kilshanny does not have the 15 hours which is now required, collectively they have 24 hours between the three schools. The same situation arises in Moyasta national school which is another base school in west Clare and which also has a satisfactory arrangement in place with other local schools in the vicinity.

For many schools the problems are typical to those of Scoil na Realt in Kilkee which has an allocation of 20 hours. Instead of having two teachers to cover its needs, it might need to employ an additional teacher for a few hours which it will find virtually impossible given that the majority of these schools are in rural areas. If a school has an allocation of five RT hours and no school cluster available, what will happen? The majority of schools have very satisfactory systems in place and have already formed clusters with other schools close by which is working very well for them. The difficulty the new regulation poses is that they fear that there will be more teachers on the road than in the classroom, thereby losing valuable time with the children. At the moment, the teachers who are travelling do so during break and lunch times with no disruption caused. However, if they have to travel further afield, there will be some impact.

I seek an update on learning support and resource teachers' hours. I hope the Minister will meet representatives of the schools concerned in order to reach a satisfactory, cost-effective solution with the least disruption.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I am responding to this topical issue on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn. I thank the Deputy for giving me an opportunity to outline to the House the reforms to the teacher allocation process that are being made and that will take effect from September. The overall objective of these reforms is to enable the teacher allocation and redeployment process to operate more smoothly and efficiently within the new climate of fixed ceilings on teaching posts. The detail of how the new arrangements will operate is set out in the Department's staffing circular which has now been published.

The new arrangements incorporate a long overdue updating of the GAM-learning support allocation for all schools. This inevitably involves changes to existing clustering arrangements whereby a teacher is shared between schools. A further change is that schools in any locality are being empowered to cluster and arrange their GAM resources in a manner that best suits their local needs. This should be completed by schools in March.

The new GAM allocations for schools are in five-hour blocks - equivalent to one school day - and are specifically designed to facilitate clustering arrangements between schools. Schools can operate their sharing arrangements in a manner that enables a teacher, who needs to travel to a neighbouring school, to do so from the start of the school day.

The new GAM arrangements treat all schools equally irrespective of size. A standard GAM allocation is given to all schools based on the number of classroom posts in the school in the current school year. Of the total overall allocation of approximately 4,100 posts, approximately two thirds will be in full-time, 25-hour, posts. This approach is the most straightforward and efficient method to ensure that the GAM allocation for schools reflects each school's requirements for teaching support. Given that the GAM is being updated through a redistribution of existing posts, there will inevitably be some changes in the GAM allocations at individual school level.

There are also new and separate arrangements for how resource hours for individual pupils are converted into teaching posts in schools. As part of the reforms, existing posts are being used to put in place a network of more than 2,500 full-time resource posts in close to 1,700 base schools throughout the country. These posts will be allocated on a permanent basis and the teachers in them will undertake NCSE approved, low-incidence, resource hours in the base schools or in neighbouring schools. This approach builds on the interim arrangements that operated in 2011, but in a more structured and transparent manner.

The requirement for resource hours in a school varies from year to year depending on the number, if any, of its pupils with autism, etc. Small schools generally have a lower requirement for resource hours. The new arrangements take account of the later timescale for the allocation of these hours necessitated by individual assessment by the NCSE.

Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply giving me an update on the reforms. The most important requirement is the education of children, particularly disadvantaged children. I hope that any changes that are made are made for the benefit of the children and are done in a cost-efficient manner. The learning support and the resource teachers to whom I have spoken expressed the concern that they would spend too much time travelling. In the past they could remain within the cluster but now might be required to travel to Ennis from west Clare, which is a waste of resource time. I hope in the new arrangement that each individual school's concerns would be considered and that the most efficient system would be introduced in the interests of all concerned.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Deputy that the Department will be working with schools and all our education partners to ensure these new arrangements operate as efficiently possible. As the process proceeds and we start to allocate the actual hours, the work can take account of any appropriate local arrangements that might be made to further optimise the travel arrangement between the schools.