Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I welcome the fact that the Minister is working on proposals on this. My colleague, Senator Hayes, has numerous times raised the example of a school in Tallaght which has 200 students from an international background. Because the number of such students has increased dramatically in recent years we are on a learning curve in terms of dealing with issue. Although that school has two teachers under the system the Minister mentioned and a third teacher was sanctioned by the Minister because of the special circumstances, this amounts to just three teachers to deal with 200 international students. I am not sure how many different languages are spoken but it is a significant number and entails serious pressures. When can we expect details on the extra teachers and will the numbers change so that once one exceeds the magic number of 28 there will be a greater increase to help schools deal with demand?

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