Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

That is what we will try to do. With regard to the reduction in the allocation in terms of time and the breakdown of the minutes, a schedule of how the hour should be allocated was drawn up in 1993 and is now being revisited to see if it is an appropriate allocation of different kinds of subvention and support systems for people with learning difficulties. Last year, the reduction of 10% accounted for six minutes from one hour and this year there is a further 5% reduction. Therefore, the 15% amounts to nine minutes. We have sent guidelines to the schools suggesting how, through different ways of teaching, such as grouping some learners with difficulties together, we can maintain the same kind of productivity, notwithstanding the notional and nominal 15% reduction in the time allocation.

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