Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This is an issue that has been allowed to go off the boil politically for a little while but it has not gone off the boil in our schools across the country. This is a key demand of the INTO in particular and of the second level unions. Shockingly, 10,000 pupils are in primary level classes of over 35 students. That is incredible but it is a fact; that is what is happening on the ground.

The children in these super-sized classrooms receive an inferior education and there is no question about this. It is not because of the quality of the teaching, the ability of the teachers, or the students; it has to do with the fact that there is shocking overcrowding. We have to take steps towards addressing this. We have to give the pupils a better deal at school, and also give the teachers a fairer chance to do the job they love to do.

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