Dan Boyle (Green Party)
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I am grateful to Senator Ó Domhnaill for sharing time. People may wonder why a Cork-based Senator would be interested in this item but my father comes from the Athphort area of Árainn Mhór and he attended this school until he finished his education at 13 years of age. On those grounds and because of the numerous telephone calls I have received from my extended family on the island, I support Senator Ó Domhnaill's call on the Minister and the Department to maintain this as a two teacher school, as all such schools should be. We should recognise Árainn Mhór as one of our more populous islands. It is a place to which emigrants have increasingly returned in recent decades, so to cut a teacher would give all the wrong indications for the future development of the island.

While I may be factually incorrect about this, I think that when the school opened in 1915, one of the teachers on the island was the great writer and social commentator Peadar O'Donnell. We should keep sight of the social and historical consequences of the decisions we make concerning such schools. Despite the appeals process, there is a good case for the Department to take a more appropriate decision on defending a two teacher school at Athphort on Árainn Mhór.

Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe. I thank the Senators for raising it.

The mainstream staffing of a primary school, including Aphort national school, is determined by reference to the enrolment of the school on 30 September of the previous school year. The number of mainstream posts sanctioned is determined by reference to a staffing schedule which is issued to all primary schools each year. This is a transparent and clear way of ensuring all schools are treated consistently and fairly, and know where they stand. The schedule allocates teachers within enrolment bands and the current bands are based on an average of 27 pupils.

The 2009 budget required difficult choices to be made across all areas of public expenditure. These decisions were made to control public expenditure and ensure sustainability in the long run. In this respect education, while protected to a much greater extent than most other areas of public expenditure, could not be totally spared. The various impacts at school level were included in the budget day announcements. Even with the budget measures in place there will still be a significantly increased borrowing requirement in 2009. There is no doubt the budget measures concerning staffing will have an impact. There is simply no easy way to control or reduce public expenditure.

When the country was able to afford it, the Government reduced the basis on which primary teachers are allocated to schools from being based on an average number of pupils per teacher of 35 pupils, down to the current level of 27 pupils. The change to a new average of 28 pupils per teacher has to be viewed in that context. Significant additional support went into schools, particularly in the area of special education.

The Government also reduced class sizes for the most disadvantaged in our DEIS schools to an average of one teacher for every 20 pupils in junior classes and an average of one teacher for every 24 pupils in senior classes. These will not be changing in 2009. When one adds up all the teachers in the system, there is one teacher for every 16 pupils in our primary schools.

Under a system that allocates additional teachers at different step points under a common schedule, it is a fact of life that changes in enrolment can effect the mainstream staffing of a school. In any year, and not just this year, when enrolments are falling in a school this can result in the loss of a teacher. Equally when enrolments increase, a school can gain a teacher under the operation of the staffing schedule.

The key factor for determining the level of mainstream teacher resources provided by the Department to primary schools for the 2009-10 school year is the pupil enrolment at 30 September 2008. There were 11 pupils in the school referred to by the Senators on 30 September 2008, which under the appointment and retention procedures entitles the school to one principal teacher. The school had 16 pupils on 30 September 2007.

The staffing schedule for the 2009-10 school year, primary circular 0002/2009, has been published on the Department's website at www.education.ie. As I have outlined, the schedule is a transparent and clear way of ensuring that schools are treated consistently and fairly, and know where they stand. If the Minister for Education and Science were to change the staffing schedule to allow the schools that are due to lose a teacher to retain that teaching post, he would be treating them differently from other schools with the exact same number on the rolls, and he does not propose to do so. The system should not create anomalies or operate on the basis that one or more schools should be treated differently to others.

The allocation process includes appellate mechanisms under which schools can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedule. The final allocation to a school is also a function of the operation of the redeployment panels. Details of the criteria and application dates for appeal are contained in the staffing schedule, circular 0002/2009, available on the Department's website. The appeal board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

I understand from the Senators that an appeal has been submitted to the appeal board. I will endeavour to get the result of that communicated to the Senators in due course. I note their comments on the special position of islands generally. I will ensure the Minister is made aware of the comments that have been made this evening. I thank the Senators for raising this matter.