Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

There is an important quality in the work we do as public representatives and that is to have an ability and a capacity to listen. In this case that is a capacity that the Government and, in particular, the Minister for Education and Skills, exercised. When the issue of the way in which the reduction in teacher numbers in disadvantaged schools was going to have an impact was raised with him, he met directly with the principals of the schools and he heard directly from them what the impact would be in their individual schools and he asked for that to be set out in greater detail. In response, he has made it clear, as I have said, not that the pupil-teacher ratio in schools will be 22:1, as Deputy McDonald has asserted; he has made it clear that he will ensure that the DEIS band one junior schools will be placed on a staffing schedule based on an average of one teacher per 20 pupils. He has made it clear that in the case of the 32 schools where there are legacy posts for less than that at the moment, that measures will be taken to ensure the pupil-teacher ratio will be less than that. He has made it clear that the special position of DEIS schools will be recognised in the adjustments of the general allocation model which is the method used in his Department to allocate teachers to schools, to reflect the disadvantaged nature of some schools. In order to avoid practical problems, he intends that the allocations will be made in January 2012 which is much earlier than is usually the case so that any difficulties identified in individual schools as regards the allocation of teachers, there will be plenty of time before these come into effect in September.

Neither I nor the Labour Party need any lecture from Deputy McDonald about the protection of pupils and the protection of the pupil-teacher ratio, either generally in the primary education sector or particularly in the area of disadvantaged schools-----

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