Dáil debates

Thursday, 8 March 2012

4:00 pm

Photo of Seán CroweSeán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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The cuts to the school in question in this matter arise from budget 2012. At the time I said the budget, in particular the education budget, lacked balance and in many cases was affecting the most vulnerable. The school in question was informed that it would lose eight teachers, who were informed of the loss of their jobs during the week. The school is typical of many schools throughout the country. One of the big concerns we all have as elected representatives is that the effect of the budget is only beginning to affect many schools. The loss of eight teachers constitutes a reduction of one third in the staffing complement of the school.

Taking the family background of the school pupils into account one could probably argue that if the DEIS programme was open to other schools that it would be included in DEIS. Unfortunately, the current system prevents schools from becoming involved in DEIS. If the school was in DEIS it would not lose some of the legacy posts. Part of the difficulty is that four of the posts date from the pre-DEIS scheme, giving children an even break. The legacy posts in DEIS schools are being retained. However, in a school such as the one in question, which probably fits the criteria of DEIS, they are not being retained. DEIS was never intended to create barriers to other schools; it was supposed to dismantle barriers but unfortunately the children in this school will be affected.

The area is one of high unemployment and there is a refugee centre close to the school. The number of children coming and going from the school can vary at different times of the year. That in itself can have implications. The school is losing one post because of a projected drop in school numbers. The proximity of the refugee centre may have a major impact on the situation.

I do not know whether the Minister can answer the questions posed. This is just one school. I do not know how many schools will be affected in a similar way. Schools in my area, which is the same area as the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, who is present, may lose five teachers. It is not sustainable for any school to lose that number of teachers. As I stated, we are being drip fed information on this matter. Some of the posts will be withdrawn from 31 August next, which means the school is facing into a bleak future. I am concerned about the impact of these cuts on children in this school. Neither they nor their parents are responsible for the creation of the crisis in our country.

Photo of Séamus HealySéamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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Last Saturday, I learned from parents and teachers in Carrick-on-Suir that eight of the 25 teaching posts at the Presentation primary school there are being withdrawn by the Minister. The school received notification of this on 29 February last. The loss of this number of teaching posts is unacceptable. This, effectively, is an assault on students and teachers at the school and on the community in Carrick-on-Suir. Four of the posts concerned are pre-DEIS posts allocated under the giving children an even break scheme, two are learning support posts, one is a language support post, which allocation was, as stated by Deputy Crowe, granted because there are many children in the school whose first language is not English. The final post is being drawn based on enrolment regulations. While enrolment at the school was down by seven on 1 September last it may have increased by 1 September next. However, the post will have been withdrawn.

The withdrawal of these eight teaching posts is a bolt out of blue for the school and is devastating news for the local community. These posts were allocated to the school in 2006 on the basis of social issues, including that Carrick-on-Suir is a RAPID town. One might wonder what has happened since to support the withdrawal of these eight teaching posts. However, nothing has happened except that the situation in Carrick-on-Suir has worsened. For example, on the date the Department sent notification to the school of the withdrawal of these teaching posts there were more than 2,000 unemployed people in Carrick-on-Suir. When the four posts allocated to the school under the Giving Children an Even Break scheme was made there were 958 unemployed in that town. Unemployment in Carrick-on-Suir has more than doubled in the intervening time.

As I stated, this is unacceptable. I call on the Minister to immediately reverse the decision to withdraw these teaching posts.

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, to the House. The Government must have anticipated the Labour Party would be holding its party this evening given he has been left to respond to the two remaining topical issue debates. Members of Fine Gael expected to be celebrating this morning. However, thanks to the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, that party did not get under way nor should it have.

I support my colleagues on this issue. I am aware that Senator Landy, who is a good colleague of the Minister, will also be making representations on this matter to the Minister for Education and Skills. The withdrawal of eight teaching posts, or one-third of the teaching population, from this school is unsustainable. It is akin to the 66% cut in training and material funding for CE schemes. This is what we are getting from a Minister and party which sent out letters prior to the election, through SIPTU and others, urging CE participants and so on to vote for the Labour Party.

These cuts are unsustainable. The school might have survived the withdrawal of one or two posts but not eight. Carrick-on-Suir has been on its knees for decades. I do not wish to talk down the town wherein I know there are many good and enterprising people. It is a RAPID town which, as Deputy Healy stated, is experiencing massive unemployment, with more than 2,000 people unemployed which figure is as high or, perhaps, higher than in Clonmel which is several times the size of Carrick-on-Suir. While the people of Carrick-on-Suir are resourceful the school cannot sustain this type of attack.

While the school is not a DEIS school it was granted four extra posts under the giving the children an even break scheme. This cut is unacceptable to the school, board of management, parents council and Presentation Sisters. We will not accept it.

I was previously a board member of Carrick-on-Suir VEC. As stated, the town is currently experiencing massive unemployment, leaving families in great disadvantage. While the primary school failed in its application for DEIS status, the VEC school under the principalship of Mr. Pat Callanan, has been granted DEIS status. I pay tribute to Mr. Callanan who recently retired. Approximately 80% of boys from the primary school feed into that college. It makes no sense that the primary school has been refused DEIS status.

I know that the Minister, Deputy Rabbitte, played a huge role in having cuts to DEIS schools in his area reversed. The Minister was quite vocal on this issue. I call on the Minister for Education and Skills to listen to the pleas of the people on Carrick-on-Suir, Deputies in this House and Senator Denis Landy. We cannot accept a one third cut in teaching posts at this school, which is, by any benchmark, totally unfair. The school cannot do without a working principal who is, owing to disciplinary issues, a huge resource to the school. His assistance in the classroom is vital. If his post is withdrawn the remaining teachers will be left in an awful situation, which is not good enough.

Photo of Pat RabbittePat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I am responding on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn, who regrets he is unable to be here, to this matter regarding the allocation process for primary schools, including the reforms to the teacher allocation process that are being made and will take effect from September 2012.

While the Government has tried to protect front line services, difficult choices had to be made to identify savings across all Departments, in line with the requirements of the EU-IMF programme of support for Ireland. Achieving savings in education is particularly difficult given the significant increases in the overall number of pupils in our schools. Notwithstanding this the Government has protected the 28:1 pupil-teacher ratio at primary level, prioritised targeted support for the most disadvantaged schools and maintained the overall number of resource teachers and SNAs to support children with special needs.

The staffing arrangements for the 2012-13 school year are set out in primary circular 0007/2012 which is available on the Department of Education and Skills website. This includes the detail of the reform of the allocation process, which is designed to bring a more equitable distribution of existing posts between schools. The new arrangements incorporate a long overdue updating of the GAM, learning support, allocation for all schools. This inevitably involves changes to existing clustering arrangements whereby a teacher is shared between schools. A further change is that schools in any locality are being empowered to cluster and arrange their GAM resources in a manner that best suits their local needs. This should be completed by schools by 16 March.

There are also new and separate arrangements for how resource hours for individual pupils are converted into teaching posts in schools. The requirement for resource hours in a school varies from year to year, depending on the number, if any, of its pupils with autism etc. Small schools generally have a lower requirement for resource hours. The new arrangements take account of the later timescale for the allocation of these hours necessitated by individual assessment by the NCSE. All of the changes are designed to enable a more efficient operation of the teacher allocation and redeployment process in the new climate of a fixed ceiling of teacher numbers.

Deputies will be aware that Budget 2012 provided for the phased withdrawal of approximately 428 posts allocated to some schools under disadvantage programmes prior to the introduction of the DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools, initiative in 2005. As already announced, the withdrawal of 192 posts from primary schools outside DEIS band 1 and 2 and from DEIS second level schools will proceed, including the 38 posts from 15 non-DEIS schools, which includes the school referred to by the Deputies and in respect of which representations have been made to the Minister by Senator Denis Landy.

The staffing schedule also includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent appeals board. Details of the criteria for appeals are contained in the aforementioned primary circular. The existing staffing appeals criteria have been extended to enable limited phasing arrangements for schools where the combination of budget and reform measures has a particularly adverse impact on a school's overall allocation. Schools such as the one referred to by my colleagues in the House which are due to lose three or more posts as a result of a combination of the budget and reform measures will be able to apply to the staffing appeals board with a view to seeking to have a portion of the loss in posts deferred to the 2013-14 school year. The closing date for submission of appeals for the April meeting of the appeals board is 23 March. The appeals board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final. The precise date in April for the appeals board meeting has not yet been set, but it is envisaged it will be held before redeployment panels are published. This, therefore, will avoid surplus permanent teachers being unnecessarily placed on the published redeployment panels in respect of those schools which are successful in the appeals process. However, it is important to note that all schools which have surplus permanent teachers for redeployment are required to return the completed redeployment forms to the Department on or before Friday, 16 March.

The Department will be working with schools and the relevant education partners to ensure these new arrangements operate as efficiently as possible. The final staffing position for all schools, including the school in question, ultimately will not be known until later in 2012. At that stage, the allocation process will be fully completed and any appeals to the appeals board will have been considered.

Photo of Seán CroweSeán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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I do not know what I could say to a parent of a pupil attending the school in question and who listened to the Minister's reply. It is a pity it does not include the number of schools which are losing three or more teachers in this manner, as that would be useful information to have in this debate. Nevertheless, the school and many like it nationwide are being doubly disadvantaged because they are not allowed to participate in the DEIS programme which has been closed. Consequently, they will lose their legacy posts. While the Minister has made reference to the appeals process, that really is putting off the inevitable and many such schools will be hit very hard. I appeal for a review of this issue. The Minister has stated he will examine the schools mentined and will open up a debate on the issue. However, a review is needed which I hope would solve some of the problems for the school in question.

Photo of Séamus HealySéamus Healy (Tipperary South, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I had hoped the Minister would accept this was an extraordinary and exceptional situation because I had certainly not encountered a case involving the withdrawal of eight teachers, or one third of the teaching staff of a school. Moreover, I remind the Minister that last year this school lost three special needs assistants, SNAs, and will lose a further SNA this year. I ask him to consider putting in place a process by which the school might be able to enter the DEIS programme for which it is undoubtedly a candidate because of the various matters I have raised.

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I thank the Minister for the reply on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, who I accept is not present for bona fide reasons. This is a typical situation in which the mandarins in the Department have designed different schemes, including the DEIS scheme, with different rules, guidelines and processes. However, this is a human problem that must be dealt with humanely because, by any yardstick, one cannot possibly accept the loss of one third of the teaching posts in a school. This is a clear example of how the best of man-made schemes can go wrong. I appeal to the Minister to meet a deputation comprising the school management, Senator Landy and the Deputies present. Moreover, I note that, in addition to the loss of the teaching posts, the school has also lost SNA posts. This is unacceptable and untenable. I accept the reply gives a glimmer of hope, in that there is an appeal system in place and that the case will be re-examined. However, the loss of eight teachers is too great and the school will be unable to continue as a result. The town of Carrick-on-Suir cannot and will not accept this. Consequently, I seek a meeting between a deputation and the Minister to examine the nuances in this regard as the school cannot be pigeonholed.

Photo of Pat RabbittePat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The reason there is no reference to any other school is the question I was asked to answer on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills is particular to the school in Carrick-on-Suir. Moreover, without being knowledgeable, I doubt whether there are many such examples elsewhere in the system. I draw the attention of Deputies Healy, Mattie McGrath and Crowe to the provision in the appeals system whereby a school which is losing three or more posts as a result of the combined impact of the reform measures and the budgetary allocation can make an appeal before 16 March in the reasonable expectation that some of the loss will be deferred to the subsequent school year. I will, of course, take the time to explain to the Minister for Education and Skills the fervent advocacy of the Deputies about this school which I have visited once. I am very familiar with the circumstances in Carrick-on-Suir and will represent that view to the Minister.