Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister to the House. As he is very well aware, there has been ongoing lobbying about Portlean national school, although this may be the first time it has formally appeared on his desk. We are living in difficult economic times and must examine certain areas where we can make savings. However we must keep a very sharp focus on our education system. We must work towards the future and if we make trimmings in the budget regarding covering the proper educational needs of children at a primary level we will face grave danger in years to come.

In September, one teacher will have sole responsibility for five class bands ranging from junior infants to third class. The second teacher will have 24 children in three class bands. While this is not unique I would like to be specific on the five class bands with 24 children. I recognise the role of the teacher in the educational curriculum, which states that it is "informed by a concern for the uniqueness of the child". One teacher has to come in every day to satisfy the specific point in the curriculum and address the uniqueness of each child for junior and senior infants and first, second and third classes.

The curriculum also states that there is a responsibility to "ensure that the complexity of children's learning needs is served by a learning process that is rich and varied." It will be varied, but will it be rich? I have to say, "No." Added to that band of five classes, there are the specific educational needs of certain children. Taking into consideration that all children have the right to access to the highest quality education appropriate to their needs, in September a teacher will go home every evening having to prepare eight different levels of work in 11 subject areas. This is impossible.

We must think of our experiences at school. The Minister knows the needs of a third class student and a junior infant are completely different. At junior infant level there is much role play and development work on social skills and oral work. That is fundamental at junior and senior infants level.

Into the bargain at Portlean national school, the extension was completed in 2007. The then Minister, Deputy Hanafin participated and we had great fanfare in the local community, which was welcomed. I welcomed this and participated in the celebrations. However in September, because the school is one student short of the number that would ensure it is a three-class school, there will be an empty classroom built and funded by the Government. The Minister is conscientious about his brief. Is it right that we have invested in a new classroom only to leave it idle because of a new quota system introduced?

This backdated quota ruling was a sinister move. A school with 48 students and three classrooms - because there are not 49 pupils on the roll book and because of the backdated ruling - will have only two teachers, and one teacher will have five different bands to work with while there is an empty classroom.

Is this right? I know the Minister will say it is not, and he will talk about the economic climate and cutbacks. Irrespective of the civil servant's script he has before him and the sinister ruling, I ask the Minister to take personal responsibility on this issue. It is not morally right that we have five different bands of students to one teacher. It goes against the grain of the curriculum and who we are as a nation in terms of putting our children before everything to ensure we work towards our future. I ask the Minister for his intervention, irrespective of the script.

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter on the Adjournment this evening. The Minister is committed to providing information on the allocation of teachers to schools and this is a new feature on the Department's website. The process has begun with the provision earlier this year of initial information on the allocation of mainstream classroom teachers to primary schools under the revised schedule for 2009-2010.

In terms of the position at individual primary school level, the key factor for determining the level of resources provided by the Department is the pupil enrolment at 30 September 2008. The annual process of seeking this enrolment data from schools took place in the autumn and the data has since been received and processed in the Department, enabling the commencement of the processes by which teaching resources are allocated to schools for the school year that begins next September.

The Department has written to the primary schools that are projected to have a net loss or gain in classroom teaching posts in September 2009. To ensure relevant information is openly available to the public, detailed information on the opening position for primary schools is now published on the Department's website. This provisional list sets out the details on individual schools that, taken collectively, are projected to gain 128 posts and to lose 382 posts, a net reduction of 254 posts. It is the Minister's intention to have this information updated and ultimately to set out the final position when the allocation processes are completed.

Within the terms of the staffing arrangements for primary schools there is provision for additional posts, referred to as developing school posts, to be assigned to schools on the basis of projected enrolments for the next school year. Under these arrangements, a developing school post may be sanctioned provisionally where the projected enrolment at 30 September of the school year in question equals or exceeds a specified figure. If the specified figure is not achieved on 30 September, sanction for the post is withdrawn.

The final position for any one school will depend on a number of factors such as the additional posts for schools that are developing rapidly, to which I have already referred, and posts allocated as a result of the appeals processes. The operation of redeployment arrangements also impacts on the final position as a teacher can remain in his or her existing school where a suitable redeployment position does not exist. The final staffing position for all schools will therefore not be known until the autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed for mainstream classroom teachers and appeals to the primary staffing appeals board will have been considered.

At its meeting on 14 May 2009, the appeal board considered an appeal submitted by the board of management of the school in question, Portlean national school. The appeal was considered under section 10 of the primary staffing schedule, circular 02/2009, which is available on the Department's website. The board decided that a departure from the staffing schedule was not warranted in this case. The appeals board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

I will set out for the Deputy the staffing arrangement in place if a school is losing a post due to falling enrolments. In such instance the most junior teacher is offered redeployment panel rights. The redeployment panel system, agreed between the patron bodies of primary schools and the INTO, serves as a means for redeployment of eligible permanent teachers in schools where posts are suppressed to schools with vacancies. Panels are determined by the patronage of the school and the final decision to admit a teacher to the panel rests with the patron.

Once the panel system is in operation schools are obliged to offer any permanent vacancy to teachers on the panel. Teachers placed on the panel are obliged to accept the first offer of employment from schools within a 45 km radius of their existing school. If a teacher has been on the panel for more than three years, the 45 km limit no longer applies. A teacher on the redeployment panel awaiting an offer of a teaching post in another school remains employed in his or her existing school and must act as replacement teacher for absences of other teachers in the school. The teacher placed on the redeployment panel from the school referred to by the Deputy has been successfully redeployed.

I thank the Deputy for providing me with the opportunity to address the House on this matter and to outline the position.