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

From my point of view the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, gave a very accurate response in answer to the supplementary questions asked by Deputy Ó Fearghaíl. When considering reductions in the overall pupil-teacher ratio at second level, we had to make a difficult choice regarding the idea that a particular category of teacher would be ring-fenced and ex-quota when in many cases these teachers were qualified to teach a subject before they became guidance counsellors. I will be very frank with Deputies McConalogue and O'Brien. Reducing the overall pupil-teacher ratio in post-primary schools has an uneven effect which is very difficult to predict because we do not have the information as to the impact on subject choice in a post-primary school if the pupil-teacher ratio is reduced and a teacher is lost, either immediately or very quickly, as a consequence. Therefore, I did not reduce the pupil-teacher ratio in post-primary schools but I did mainstream the guidance teacher allocation. This was the equivalent of a reduction of 0.6 in the pupil-teacher ratio.

I did this because I was under economic pressure to do so and because the principals of many schools had come to me informally and stated they would prefer to deploy the guidance teacher resource, including guidance provision, throughout the school, so that when guidance provision was done the teachers could be allocated to other requirements within the school. There is an ongoing debate about leadership in schools and having as much autonomy and resources as possible at the discretion of the principal and his or her team. This is what we are trying to do. I fully support the position articulated by the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, because it is clearly in line with the position we have enunciated for some time.

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