John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for the reply. I am looking at the figures he quoted. To be specific, he mentioned that the figure for last year was 80 hours and that it will be the same next year. He makes the point that this is not a reduction. The problem is that in this particular school in 2016 and 2017, the information is that there were 30 hours. However, if one looks back to 2015 and 2016, the same school had 60 hours in that allocation and had been at 50 hours over the five-year period. Effectively, the 30 hours that the Minister refers to in his answer to me today was the smallest recorded in any of the last five years. That is the basis for next year's allocation and is the issue that the school is complaining about. It is saying that it is not reflective of what had happened last year or over the previous five years. It is not out of kilter by a small bit, but is substantially out of kilter. That is the crux of the problem when averaging over a one year period only and only taking last year's figure into account.

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