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

Schools that require language support will still be entitled to get it. However, the budget measures will mean that the level of that support will be reduced to a maximum of two teachers per school, as was the case before 2007. We still envisage having over 1,400 language support teachers in our schools in September 2009 and up to about 500 other teachers in part-time posts. By any standards that is a very significant resource and the challenge will be to ensure it is used to maximum effect.

As I announced on budget day, we will also provide for some alleviation for the position of those schools where there is a significant concentration of newcomer pupils as a proportion of the overall enrolment.

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