Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

There have been improvements in reading and mathematics. One principal has sent an e-mail to me asking what the reward for teachers and schools has been. It has been a continuation of cuts that were brought in by Fianna Fáil in the previous Administration, but which were then added to by the current Government, such as a 15% cut in resource teaching hours. The reversal of the cuts has not applied to teaching of English as an additional language, which particularly affects areas like my own, where 25% of the population hails from outside Ireland. There has been no reversal of the resource teaching cuts for Travellers, or of cuts to the number of counsellors. While the Minister has said that there has been an increase in the last year, that in no way makes up for the cuts that have taken place since 2009. Is the Minister trying to say we are at pre-crisis levels? The basis for those cuts was that we were in a bailout situation. The Minister is saying we are in a recovery, so when will teaching staff be restored and when will SNAs be restored to pre-recession levels?

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