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

I again acknowledge the change to the pupil-teacher ratio from next to the lowest ever. It was an example of mature politics. We can shout and roar across the Dáil Chamber but when we work together, put our case on the basis of what we have done in the confidence and supply agreement and work professionally, as the Minister and I have done, we can actually achieve and change something. I am not speaking against small schools in any way. We will be the first to defend them if we have to. However, there is an issue in larger schools.

We are building bigger and bigger schools all the time. Realistically, the Minister will not be establishing new schools with two or three teachers. He will be establishing new schools with at least two streams and at least 16 teachers plus principal. In many cases, the numbers will be bigger. There are anomalies on the staffing schedule for ordinary schools and indeed Gaelscoileanna. In respect of a principal plus seven-teacher school up to a principal plus 16-teacher school, an increase of 26 pupils is required to get the additional teacher. A principal plus a 17-teacher school needs 37 pupils to move up that ratio and get the extra teacher so it does press the school hard. When one sees the headlines in the newspapers that the largest class sizes are in Meath, Kildare, Dublin, particularly suburban Dublin, and suburban Cork, this is the reason for it. Could it be looked at? Obviously, it will be in the context of financial and budgetary pressures and we have already taken one significant step so I am looking ahead. Is there a way of saying that a maximum class size should be this and we would not allow it and would not give the schools discretion to have class sizes bigger than a certain size, possibly 30?

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