Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

I cannot talk about 2001.

The application of last year was assessed in accordance with the published prioritisation criteria for large-scale building projects, which were revised following consultation with the education partners. The project will be considered in the context of the school building and modernisation programme 2005-09.

As the Senator will no doubt recognise, one reason there is such pressure in schools at present is because there are so many extra teachers, remedial teachers and resource teachers, all of whom need space. An average rural two-teacher school now needs a third classroom because there are so many extra services being provided. This is great but, as the Senator knows, if extra people are employed, extra space is required. When people complain about the problems associated with the schools building programme, they often ignore the two main causes. The first is the population shift. When those of us who fight against urbanisation say we are pushing too many people too fast and that we have half-empty schools in one half of the country and schools that are too full in the other half, we are often berated.

The second problem is that we have provided many extra services to schools. The third issue is the unprecedented growth in our population, for which nobody had planned. Had we planned for it we would have been dismissed as mad. We are dealing with these issues.

The position with regard to class sizes is that the mainstream staffing of a primary school is determined by applying the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year to a staffing schedule agreed between the Department and the education partners. The system for allocating teachers to primary schools is based on ensuring an overall maximum class of 29 in each school. Where some classes in a school have more than 29 pupils that is generally because a decision has been taken at local level to use the teaching resources to reduce the numbers in other classes.

In the 2003-04 school year, the last year for which details are available, there were 11 classes of over 30 pupils in the school to which the Senator referred. The average class size, however, in the school is 28. In accordance with the staffing schedule, the staffing of the school for this school year is a principal and 27 mainstream class teachers based on an enrolment of 761 pupils at 30 September 2003. In addition, the school has three resource posts, two learning support posts and two temporary language support posts.

The Department will finalise the staffing schedule for the 2005-06 school year shortly and thereafter notify school boards of management. According to data submitted to the Department by the board of management, the enrolment in the school on 30 September 2004 was 766 pupils. The staffing for the 2005-06 school year will be determined on the basis of this figure and in accordance with the relevant staffing schedule.

Once again I thank the Senator for giving me the opportunity to outline to the House the method used by the Department of Education and Science in determining in an open and transparent way how projects are included for funding in the schools building programme and to assure the House that this school and all others will be treated in a fair and equitable manner.