Ulick Burke (Galway East, Fine Gael)

In the context of the revised programme for Government, what is the breakdown, for each of the three years involved, between primary and second level in regard to the allocation of the proposed 500 extra teachers?

With regard to the pupil-teacher ratio, every national school I know of in east Galway has an increased ratio and larger class sizes, some as large as 35 which had just 24 pupils last year, due to the loss of teachers. This can be merely because they were one student under the required number, which is totally unfair to the schools involved.

With regard to the psychological service, I wish to refer to the comments of a teaching principal who wrote to me in recent weeks. He stated:

The NEPS service is terrible. Last week I tried to get through to the Galway office. There was no one there to answer the phone and it would not be manned until 12 October. I was told to phone the Dublin office. There was no answer there and the phone message box was full.

The letter ended by stating the process was a frustrating waste of time. Will the Minister of State comment?

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