Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)
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Question 475: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the proposals he has to address the problems that will arise for a primary school (details supplied) in County Waterford resulting from the budget 2009 cutbacks; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43628/08]

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. Decisions were made in order to control expenditure and to ensure sustainability in the long term. In this respect my Department, while protected to a much greater extent than most other areas of public expenditure, could not be entirely spared, and I acknowledge the impact of funding restrictions in a number of areas, including at school level. However, these are the inevitable result of the challenging economic environment and the need to manage Exchequer resources prudently. These decisions included increasing the pupil teacher ratio across all second-level schools from 18:1 to 19:1. In the case of fee-charging post-primary schools, there will be an additional one-point adjustment to 20:1.

As the processing of the September 2008 enrolment returns for post-primary schools are not yet finalised, it is not possible at this time to state the impact the changes will have on the allocation of mainstream teaching posts for the 2009/10 school year for the school in question. The staffing schedule for the 2009/10 school year will issue to all schools as soon as possible, and at that time, a more accurate indication of the mainstream staffing levels will be available.

The allocation processes include appellate mechanisms under which schools can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedules. This is particularly relevant at post-primary level where the appellate process considers in particular any specific curricular needs of the school concerned. At post-primary there is no effective system wide redeployment scheme at present and this can mean that schools retain teachers, though over quota, and in addition discrete allocations are made to post-primary schools for example to cater for pupils with Special Educational Needs and those with Language difficulties and these allocations can also alter the ultimate position of the school in relation to any over quota position.

My Department is aware of funding pressures on schools. However, progress has been made in recent years that has seen the post-primary school capitation grant increased by €15 per pupil and now amounts to €331 per pupil. In addition, voluntary secondary schools have benefited by the increase of €15 per pupil in 2008 in the support services grant bringing that grant to €204 per pupil.

The cumulative increase of €30 per pupil in a voluntary secondary school brings the aggregate grant to €535 per pupil. These grants are in addition to the per capita funding of up to 40,000 per school that is also provided by my Department to secondary schools towards secretarial and caretaking services.