Olwyn Enright (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

The Minister indicated that there are just over 200 children in classes of 40 or more. The figure for the past year was 287. A total of 1,792 pupils — the highest in the country — in Cork county are in classes of between 35 and 39. I do not believe that the argument that schools opt to have lower numbers in particular years is always fair. It is not the case in every instance.

Over a year ago, the Minister spoke about the number of teachers provided to schools with non-national students and she said she hoped to make some progress. Has any progress been made? This is a key difficulty for some schools in which there is a significant number of non-national children. There have also been problems with children changing schools during term time as their families have moved, with schools in Newbridge being the most recent example. Has the Minister any ideas to address that problem?

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