Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

The programme for Government sets out the overarching policy position on the provision of additional teachers and on reductions in class size over the life of the Government. The programme contains a commitment to increase the number of primary teachers by at least 4,000 and on that basis to make further progress in reducing class sizes.

Budget 2008 provided my Department with €4.6 billion, or €380 million extra, for teacher pay and pensions. That was a very substantial level of additional investment in terms of the economic environment on which the budget was based. That allocation provides for more than 2,000 extra primary teachers, more than the number in schools when the Government took office last summer. It covers the additional teachers who went into schools last September for the previously announced reduction to a 27:1 based staffing schedule with additional teachers this school year and in the coming school year to meet increasing enrolments and provide for special needs and for the language requirements of newcomer children. This means that in terms of the overall commitment to provide at least 4,000 additional teachers, the Government, in its first two years in office, will be well ahead of target.

All programme for Government commitments to improve public services, including those relating to class size, are contingent on the economic and budgetary environment and the need for prudent expenditure and fiscal management. Even since the presentation of budget 2008 last December, there have been significant alterations in the external and domestic environment. In that context any reasonable observer would regard the fact that the Government has already taken measures that will see the allocation of more than 2,000 additional teachers to primary schools as a considerable investment, all things considered.

Similarly, the commitment to improving class size in second level schools can only be considered in the context of the overall economic and budgetary position that might prevail in the coming years and the competing priorities for available resources.

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