Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 174: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the effect the budget cuts for 2009 will have on a secondary school (details supplied) in County Mayo in relation to staffing numbers, abolition of book grants, abolition of grants such as home economics, physics, chemistry, and leaving certificate applied, and the increase in pupil teacher ratio; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43184/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The 2009 Budget required difficult choices to be made across all areas of public expenditure. These decisions were made to control public expenditure and to 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.

My Department will be advising individual schools, including the school referred to by the Deputy, in the normal way in relation to their staffing and grant allocations. The preparatory work for this has commenced with the processing of enrolment data that has been received from schools. The staffing allocation processes, including notification to schools, will commence early in the New Year. The allocation process includes appellate mechanisms under which schools can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedules.

In addition to the mainstream classroom teachers, my Department also allocates teaching resources to schools for special needs and language support. The final allocation to a school is also a function of the operation of the redeployment panels, which provide for the retention of a teacher in an existing school if a new post is not available within the agreed terms of the scheme. At this time the priority for my Department, within the resources available to it, is to carry out those processes in a timely manner.