Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. This Department and other Departments look at figures and statistics. The six teaching posts in question are very important because hundreds of children are affected by those six posts. The entire school communities associated with the six different schools are affected. There may have been a 1% reduction in the overall staffing levels, but hundreds of children have been affected in their formative years as a result of that policy change. The appeals mechanism is welcome in that it helps to make a bad situation a little bit better. However, what it has done is to take the very unfair retrospective element out of the process but it has not really done anything else. Last year in County Kerry, two posts were lost and five posts were saved through the appeals mechanism. It is a case of kicking the can a little further down the road because with the increasing thresholds, all the appeals mechanism can do is give the schools a chance at least. People will say it should not have been retrospective in the first place. It is very scant consolation.

The level of actual savings achieved is much less than originally anticipated. I stand open to correction on the figures. I asked parliamentary questions on this subject and the reply gave a figure of approximately €2.5 million, which is a very small amount in the overall scheme but it has caused a significant level of upset, anger and frustration. It is easy to say here that this needs to be reviewed, but there has not been any significant financial saving for the Department. Senator Ó Clochartaigh touched on this aspect in his contribution. It would be a different matter if it made up a significant part of the annual savings required by the Department. There is good reason to rethink this policy because there is not a massive financial saving associated with it.