Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I sought an additional briefing from one of my civil servants because, like the Deputy, I wanted to ensure that I understood accurately the reply that I had read. In my own words, I was told that there was never an automatic one-to-one entitlement. In many cases, an application was made on behalf of one child. The euphemism in the documentation reads, "In previous years, the application process may have failed to identify siblings, resulting in double allocations in some cases". This situation has been identified.

As I stated in my formal reply, which I read into the record of the House, the ratio of one teacher to up to six pupils is considered acceptable. This may have resulted in the perception by some parents that there had been a reduction, but there was none. Rather, there was an application of what was always policy. However, there were instances in which the perception by parents of a double-up could have been legitimate.

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