Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)

The issue in this regard pertains more to class sizes than to pupil-teacher ratios, as the latter are arrived at by adding up all teachers, principals and everyone else and dividing them by the number of children in the school. That does not tell one much. The real issue pertains to class size and as the Tánaiste is aware, this has worsened considerably in the course of the last two years, given the change in the class schedule. Does the Tánaiste have information to hand for the benefit of Members on the total number of classes nationwide that have 30 or more children? Is such information available? Second, did the Tánaiste state in her reply that the full information on last year's enrolment figures, which is normally given to the Department in October of each year, will not be available until next September? It is important that she should clarify this point.

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