Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

The school was given a principal and two mainstream teachers for 2007 to 2008 because of an enrolment of 49 pupils in September 2006. These figures are significant. Unfortunately, the enrolment in September last year was 47 and next year the school will have only a principal and one mainstream class teacher. In the case of Ballymurphy, I know there is the possibility of retaining the third teacher through the provisions made for developing school posts. I hope the Department, the Minister and his partners in Government will work hard with the school to provide this developing school post.

I note what the Minister had to say last evening about issues to do with teacher numbers in schools and I welcome his openness to any debate on the changes we might have to the overall schedule for allocating teachers. My view is that a certain humanity must be incorporated into the system of teacher numbers and while consistency with the rules is important, the drive to reduce class sizes will only be maintained by being realistic about schools in terms of numbers. I acknowledge the role to be played by the staffing appeals board in these matters and I trust the Minister will ensure the operation of this board is underpinned by realism and compassion.

This has been a good debate in the House on education. The Opposition can rest assured that my party will not get complacent about putting the necessary resources into primary, secondary and tertiary education.

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