Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I thank Deputy Bannon for raising this issue, as it gives those of us on the Government benches an opportunity to clarify the position. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, and the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, are attending the IVEA conference in Cork today and the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, is out of the country on Government business. They apologise for not being present and I have been asked to respond on their behalf.

The decision to withdraw RTTs and rural co-ordinator posts was taken by the previous Government as part of the last budget. The requirement to make expenditure savings and to ensure that staffing numbers remain within the public service employment control framework prevent us as an incoming Government from revisiting the decision.

The programme for Government sets out that education will be a priority for the Government and that we will endeavour to protect and enhance the educational experience of children, young people and students. To this end, we are committing, during the tenure of the Government, to improving the co-ordination and integration of the delivery of services to the Traveller community across all Departments using available resources more effectively to deliver upon the fundamental principle of inclusion.

The decision to dispense with Traveller-specific resource teaching posts is broadly in keeping with the Traveller education strategy, which recommends that an integrated, collaborative and in-class learning support structure should be adopted for all children, including Travellers, with an identified educational need. The strategy aims to enhance access, attendance, participation and engagement for Travellers and is underpinned by the principles of inclusion and mainstreaming with an emphasis on equality and diversity.

Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching from this school now receive the tuition through the existing learning support provision therein. The Government recognises that withdrawing all RTT posts will place a strain on existing learning support services in schools. In recognition of this, limited alleviation measures have been provided to assist some schools that have high numbers and concentrations of Traveller pupils and who were previously supported by RTTs. The school in question had only 16 pupils of a total population of 437 in 2011 who were supported by an RTT post. By comparison with the number in other schools, this number was relatively small and accordingly this school did not qualify for alleviation measures available for schools losing RTT posts. These were allocated to the schools which had the highest numbers and percentages of pupils supported by RTTs.

I understand that, for the current school year, St. Mary's national school has four full-time and one shared learning support-resource teaching posts to support students. Traveller pupils who require additional learning support or resource teaching should be provided with such support through these means.

With regard to the position on the rural co-ordinator service, I wish to clarify the school was selected to participate in the rural element of DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunities in Schools, the action plan for educational inclusion. The school was included in a rural cluster with two other rural DEIS schools and had, until this year, the services of a rural co-ordinator. The decision to remove the rural co-ordinator service from 331 rural DEIS primary schools was a measure taken by the last Government as part of a measure to secure some €24 million in savings in the 2011-12 school year under the national recovery plan. The service was discontinued with effect from 31 August 2011. Requirements to make expenditure savings and to ensure staffing numbers remain within the public service employment control framework prevent us from re-visiting this decision.

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