Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)

The Tánaiste knows there is a significant difference between the pupil-teacher ratio and the average class size but she and her colleagues continue to refer to it almost as a crutch for their own failures to address the real need in the education system. She should make no mistake. It is like saying there are 166 Members in the Dáil and seven political parties and, therefore, we can say the average representation of each of the parties is 23.7. It is absolutely ludicrous, meaningless, false and misleading.

When the Tánaiste cites those figures, she includes non-teaching principals, special needs teachers and resource teachers who work on a one-to-one basis and do not take classes. We are talking about teachers dealing with classes with in excess of 30 pupils. It is an outrage and no teacher can possibly give the time necessary to the needs of each pupil.

We need to know what action the Government proposes taking to address this serious situation. Will the Tánaiste lift the embargo on the creation of new teaching posts? Will she act to ease the burden on teachers who must teach in multiple classes, a reality in many small rural schools?

What is the position with the revised system for the allocation of special needs teachers? We have seen the terrible tragedy and the travesty of the treatment of the O'Hara family in the last two weeks and we need to know exactly what the Tánaiste and her Government colleagues will do.

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