Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

The decision to withdraw all resource teacher for Travellers was taken by the previous Government in the last budget. The economic situation means that difficult decisions have had to be taken and implemented in order to make expenditure savings and to ensure that teacher numbers remain within the public service employment control framework.

Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching should receive this tuition through the existing learning support provision in schools. All schools should select students for learning support on the basis of priority of need.

Limited alleviation measures have been provided to assist schools which have high numbers or concentrations of Traveller pupils who were previously supported by resource teacher for Travellers, RTT, posts. The decision to withdraw the resource teachers for Travellers will not be revisited. There are, therefore, no plans to reinstate the RTT posts this year.

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