Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)

Notwithstanding the huge developments that have taken place in additional teaching staff in our schools, will the Minister acknowledge it is still too little and too late? I spoke to the Minister exactly a year ago this month on the programme for Government commitment to reduce class sizes for pupils under nine years of age to less than 20. That will not be implemented during the lifetime of this Government. I am sure the Minister acknowledges that.

Will the Minister concede that the OECD report on attracting, developing and retaining effective teachers called for an additional 1,600 primary teachers? How many of that 1,600 are included in the figure of 500 the Minister gave today? If we consider issues such as problems with school discipline, the report of the taskforce on student behaviour recommended that the five year old McGuinness report on the allocation of teachers in second-level schools be implemented. The second recommendation of that report is for an additional 1,200 teachers at second-level. Those figures amount to a total of 2,800 additional teachers. What proportion of the figure in terms of extra teachers this year, last year and the previous year comes from that 2,800? How much more must the Minister do and will she get it done within the remaining year of the Government's term?

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