Written answers

Tuesday, 2 December 2008

Department of Education and Science

Pupil-Teacher Ratio

9:00 pm

Photo of John DeasyJohn Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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Question 482: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will examine the situation of a school (details supplied) in County Waterford; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this school will lose one of its four teachers because it has 80 pupils on roll in September 2008 and that the school currently has 82 pupils on roll and will have at least 81 in September 2009; if he will reconsider the decision to reduce the number of teachers approved for the school; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43763/08]

Photo of Batt O'KeeffeBatt 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 in the normal way in relation to their staffing allocations. The staffing schedule will be published and it is a transparent and clear way of ensuring that schools are treated consistently and fairly and know where they stand. The preparatory work for the staffing allocations 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. 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.

I have no difficulty in setting out for this House or for the public generally the overall net impact of the budget measures on aggregate teacher numbers in schools for the 2009/10 school year. I will do this when the allocation process has been completed.

At this time the priority for my Department within the resources available to it is to carry out those processes in a timely manner. Diverting resources in order to create staffing profiles for the school referred to by the Deputy, information which at this time could only be speculative, could not be justified and would in fact impede the process.

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