Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if the cap on the number of extra teachers allocated to schools to teach English to those whose native language is neither English nor Irish has been lifted; the way schools with large numbers of such children are being assisted; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [5085/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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In order to ensure that children whose first language is not English can succeed at school, my Department gives additional support to their schools which can take the form of financial assistance, additional temporary teacher posts or portions of teacher posts. Guidelines have also been produced for teachers on teaching English as an additional language, and these are available on the NCCA website.

The level of extra financial or teaching support provided to any school is determined by the numbers of non-English speaking students enrolled. Each school management can decide on the structure of the support to be provided in its own school. An allocation of 2 years' language support for each pupil is provided by my Department.

Recent years have seen a significant rise in the number of language support posts being provided by my Department. In the current school year, there are more than 1,250 such teachers in our schools. This compares with approximately 820 language support teachers last year and just 260 in the 2001/2002 school year. Hence there has been more than a four-fold increase in language support posts over the past few years. In addition to the full-time posts approved, grants towards the cost of employing part-time teachers are paid to primary schools with between 3 and 13 eligible non national pupils. In the 2005/06 school year, 409 schools sought grant aid under this provision.

Between extra language support posts and grant aid, the level of support provided to schools to meet the needs of children whose first language is not English has increased dramatically in recent years. Nonetheless I am very conscious of the pressures on schools that have large numbers of non-English speaking children enrolled. I am determined to provide greater support for these schools. To that end, provision has been made in the 2007 Estimates for an extra 200 language support teachers in 2007. A further 350 posts will be provided under the Towards 2016 partnership agreement between 2008 and 2009. I can assure the Deputy that the additional resources will be targeted at those areas where they are most needed.