Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Following a review of the staffing allocation for small primary schools, budget 2017 announced two adjustments relating to one-teacher schools. Where the school is the sole primary school on an island, it will be able to appoint a second teacher. Single-teacher schools more generally with an enrolment of 15 or more pupils can apply to the staffing appeals board for a second post where the single teacher has pupils across six or more class groups. This new measure is in recognition of the challenges faced by teachers having to teach six class groups or more.

These arrangements will be effective from September 2017 and will be set out in the staffing schedule circular for the 2017-18 school year which will be available on my Department's website in the coming weeks. These two measures are important improvements in the staffing for small rural schools. They demonstrate the Government's commitment to rural Ireland within the small increase in resources that the Department has been able to secure.

These new measures build on the previous improvements to the staffing of small schools in the 2015-16 school year, where improved retention thresholds were introduced for the second, third and fourth classroom teacher and also the improved appointment and retention thresholds for one-teacher schools situated 8 km or more from the nearest school of the same type of patronage and-or language of instruction. This reduced the enrolment requirement for these one-teacher schools from 20 to 15.

In addition, budget 2016 introduced a one point improvement, from 28:1 to 27:1, to the primary staffing schedule which has been implemented for the current school year and it should be noted that the current staffing schedule of 27:1 for primary schools has restored it to the position prior to the fiscal crisis. As resources become available, we are trying to make it easier for these small schools.

See this speech in context