Seán Ardagh (Dublin South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 527: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will examine the concerns expressed in correspondence from the school principal of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 6w; if he will respond to their concerns; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46395/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am aware of the concerns raised by the school referred to by the Deputy. The Government's commitment to education is clear both from its track record over the past decade in providing substantial additional resources, most notably extra teachers to meet previously unmet needs and from the programme the Government set for itself when it came into office. A lot has changed in the past year and the first and foremost imperative is that we stabilise the public finances. It is only by doing so that we can shelter gains made and put ourselves in the position of being able to make improvements in the future.

However we are dealing with an economic situation of unprecedented difficulty. The Government has a collective duty to respond to this and to take very difficult decisions in the national interest. In doing this we have attempted to afford some shelter to the education sector but given the scale of public expenditure on education it is simply not possible to avoid tough decisions. 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.

I fully accept that these decisions are not of themselves desirable and that they can only be justified by the imperative of securing the future economic stability of the country. I have called for co-operation from all the education partners in meeting the challenges facing us both as an education community and as a country.

It is a matter for each school's Board of Management to have an enrolment policy and to then operate that policy in a fair and consistent manner having regard to the overall physical space capacity of a school. My Department has a responsibility to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places. This may result, however, in some pupils not obtaining a place in the school of their first choice. That is no more than a normal feature of the enrolment process in any community.

My Department will continue to ensure that those schools with the greatest increase in pupil numbers will still qualify for developing school status thus enabling them to get their increased staffing in September 2009 — a year in advance of other schools.

The Forward Planning Section of my Department is currently in the process of identifying the areas where significant additional school accommodation will be required at primary and post-primary level. Factors under consideration include population growth, demographic trends, current and projected enrolments, recent and planned housing developments and capacity of existing schools to meet demand for places. Having considered these factors decisions will be taken on the means by which emerging needs will be met within an area.

The demand for junior infant places in the area in question will be considered within this context.

What is not acceptable is that any school authority would in the coming year alter its approach to enrolment simply because it wants to pressurise the government or to give support to a campaign being conducted by a teacher union.

As I have already pointed out in the House in recent weeks the changes to the classroom staffing of primary schools reverts schools to the position that applied just over one school year ago. Schools are given teaching resources commensurate with their enrolment and under the staffing schedule schools with like enrolments are treated in the same way. In terms of accommodating pupils I believe it is totally reasonable to expect schools to operate from next September no less favourably than they did in 2006/2007.

Any school acting dishonourably in this regard must ultimately answer to its local community and to the parents and children in that community in particular.

In terms of the staffing implications at school level the 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.