Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

I am taking this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Ruairí Quinn. I thank Senator Fidelma Healy Eames for raising this issue as it affords me the opportunity to explain to the House the reasoning behind the changes to the staffing schedule. The need to effect savings in my Department's budget has required very difficult decisions to be made, especially at a time when the school-going population is increasing. We will need to find places for 70,000 additional students in the system over the next four to five years. Our objective is to be as fair as possible in making the decisions that are necessary.

One third of all public sector employees in the State work in the education sector. As such, it is simply not possible to exempt staffing levels in education from the requirement to reduce expenditure. There was no increase in the budget in the general average of 28:1 used to allocate teachers to primary schools, a safeguard which had been called for by many interested parties. However, the budget included a phased increase in the pupil threshold for the allocation of classroom teachers in small primary schools. The only change this will mean for such schools is that their average class sizes will no longer be as advantageous as they were in the past due to the phased increases in the pupil thresholds in the staffing schedule.

Where schools are claiming to have more pupils next September than they had last September, as referred to specifically by the Senator, they are asking that some allowance be made. The existing staffing appeals process can be accessed by schools which are projecting increased enrolments sufficient to allow them to retain their existing classroom posts in the longer term. The details on how this will operate will be made clear as part of my Department's forthcoming circular, which will issue shortly to all schools, on the staffing arrangements for the 2012-13 school year.

Even when all of the phased increases are implemented, the threshold for a second teacher, at 20 pupils, will be significantly lower than the minimum of 28 that was required for the appointment of a second teacher in rural schools prior to the late 1990s. Rural communities have no reason to fear a forced closure of their local school. Such communities represent a cornerstone of Irish heritage, and their schools are in turn the cornerstone of the communities. The Government remains committed to sustaining those communities. This debate affords me an opportunity to state categorically that this measure is not about closing schools which play such an important part in our communities.

For some schools, amalgamation with a neighbouring school may be a sound option for sustaining school provision in a locality where enrolments are falling. It is for schools themselves to decide whether they want to go that route, however, and the Department will work with them in regard to any such move. The Minister expects the report of the value for money review of small primary schools to be presented to him in the next eight weeks. After he has considered its outcomes and proposals, it will be published and laid before the Oireachtas. This will afford an opportunity to Deputies and Senators to have a wide-ranging debate on its proposals.

I have trust and confidence in the capacity of school principals and teachers to play their part in making the best use of available resources to achieve the best possible educational outcomes for their pupils.