Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Question 243: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the arrangements that are made for providing additional teachers when a school experiences a significant rise in the intake in the infant class which is not reflected in the previous year's enrolment figures used for calculating the pupil teacher ratio; and the procedure for appealing for additional teaching resources. [37176/06]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Within the terms of the current 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.

A developing school is defined as a school where the enrolment on 30 September of one year is projected to exceed the enrolment on 30 September of the previous year by a minimum numerical increase of 25 pupils and by having an excess of 5 pupils above the required appointment figure.

In the case of such schools, an additional permanent post(s) may be sanctioned provisionally pending the confirmation of the valid enrolment on 30 September of the school year in question. In the event of the appropriate enrolment figure not being achieved on 30th September, sanction for the post is withdrawn.

Application(s) for an additional post(s) under developing school criteria must be submitted on or before a date in October of the school year in question. In the current school year, the date was the 10th October, 2006.

The above criteria are set out in Primary Circular 0023/2006 which is available on my Department website www.education.ie.

Over 280 such posts were sanctioned in the 2006/07 school year, compared to 170 in 2005/06.