John Perry (Sligo-North Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 278: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the position regarding the impact the recent cutbacks in education will have on staffing levels on a school (details supplied) in County Sligo, including all full-time and part-time teaching posts; if there are plans to provide a new facility; if so, the position of same on the building programme; the teacher numbers in this school from September 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44309/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The 2009 budget required difficult choices to be made in 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. As part of the expansion of the small schools scheme in 2007, a grant of €820,000 was allocated to Castlerock NS to enable the management authority to build a new three-classroom school. I understand they are in discussions regarding the purchase of a site. My Department will be advising individual schools in the normal way in relation to their staffing 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 funding mainstream classroom teachers, my Department also allocates teaching resources to schools for special needs and language support. The final allocation to a school is 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 changes on aggregate teacher numbers in schools for the 2009-10 school year. I will do this when the allocation processes have been completed. Furthermore, the staffing schedule will be published. It is a transparent and clear way of ensuring that schools are treated consistently and fairly and know where they stand. 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 to create staffing profiles for the school requested by the Deputy, information which at this time could only be speculative, could not be justified and would in fact impede the process.