Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 272: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the number of extra teachers to be employed in 2008; the extent to which this is expected to improve pupil teacher ratios in the classroom; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7127/08]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Approximately 1,100 extra primary and post-primary teachers have been put in place this school year. We are also planning for about 1,200 more for the 2008/09 year.

As I have said on many occasions in the past, high quality teachers are by far the most important ingredient in our education system. The record increases in teacher numbers in recent years have been absolutely unprecedented.

Significant improvements have been made in the pupil teacher ratio at primary and post-primary level in recent years. The ratio at primary level has dropped from 22.2:1 in the 1996/97 school year to 16.41:1 in the 2006/07 school year. The ratio at post-primary level has dropped from 16:1 in the 1996/97 school year to 13.13:1 in the 2006/07 school year.

In the primary sector alone, there are now in the region of 6,000 more teachers on my Department's payroll than there were in 2002. Extra teachers have been provided in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 school years specifically to reduce class sizes in our primary schools. The number of teachers working in the areas of language support and special needs has also increased significantly.

The Programme for Government contains a commitment to provide a further 4,000 primary teachers by 2012. With the additional teachers already put in place this year and those provided for in the Budget, we are ahead of target with about 2,000 extra primary teachers to be delivered within just two years.