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

I am glad to set out for the House my commitment and that of the Government to the provision of teaching resources to primary schools. This is being done as part of our overall investment in education which has increased significantly in recent years by more than 70% since 2002 to more than €9.3 billion this year. This represents a significant increase of more than €690 million, or 8%, on the funding position after budget 2007 and will enable us to consolidate the major service and funding improvements put in place in recent years and to make further progress in a wide range of areas.

Ultimately, this investment is about improving outcomes for our learners whether in schools, colleges or non-formal settings. The specific issue before the House on reductions to class sizes in primary schools is important in its own right. Nonetheless, it is but one policy instrument among many by which we are trying to ensure learning outcomes that enable the individual child or student to achieve his or her full potential and participate to the fullest extent possible in society. The €9.3 billion being provided for education this year will enable us to deliver significantly on a number of fronts by investing almost €600 million in school buildings, by bringing expenditure on special education to twice the 2004 amount, through putting additional teachers and special needs assistants in place in primary and post-primary schools and by providing €4.6 billion, or €380 million extra, for teacher pay and pensions.

I will now discuss the specific issue of class size. 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 on reducing class sizes.

The programme also sets out how improvements in class size in primary schools will be brought about by changes to the staffing schedule that is used to allocate classroom teachers to primary schools based on the total enrolment in the school. The schedule allocates teachers within enrolment bands and the current bands are based on an average of 27 pupils. The programme for Government sets a revised basis for the 2010-11 school year of an allocation based on an average of 24 pupils to a class and this will be achieved on a gradual basis by a series of annual reductions of one point on the schedule.

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