Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

I have just come from the INTO rally at Marlborough House where the common theme was that people were confused about the review and what exactly is involved in it.

I listened to what the Minister stated about the 428 legacy posts. Some of those legacy posts came to schools due to Breaking the Cycle. There was an acceptance that there was disadvantage in certain schools but in some of those schools the disadvantage was even more extreme. The Minister's predecessor looked at that and some schools were assigned a 15:1 allocation for specific problems within them.

I have a couple of questions, on the review itself but, first, on the 428 legacy posts. We all know the possible removal of those posts is the crux of the matter of concern. I do not believe anyone has a difficulty where there are falling enrolments. That is not coming into the equation with anyone on the matter of losing teacher posts in schools. The concern was that some of the schools would lose up to a third or a quarter of their teachers, perhaps ten teachers, which is not sustainable.

The Minister met his party's Members and gave assurances that he would look at schools individually. Will the review be done on an individual school basis? Will it be done purely on a number-crunching basis? Will the Department look at the issues in each school? The Minister stated it would be a four-week review. When he gets the review back, what then will be the timescale?

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