Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 621: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the measures of supervision under health and safety that are necessary in schools. [46811/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 sets out the responsibilities on individual school management authorities to have a safety statement in place in their schools. The Statement should identify potential hazards, assess the risks to health and safety and put appropriate provision in place to safeguard the safety and health of employees and pupils. The Safety Statement should be reviewed on a regular basis. In practical terms, individual school authorities are best placed to assess the detail of their own health and safety requirements.

Sections 14, 15 and 23 of the Education Act,1998 assigns each Board of Management and Principal Teacher responsibility for the day-to-day management of schools. Principals should organise supervision for the order and general behaviour of pupils during school hours. In particular, they should organise and participate in the effective supervision of the pupils during breaks, lunch-breaks, assembly and dismissal.

Rules 121(4) and 124(1) of the Rules for National Schools and Section 23(2) of the Education Act 1998 also oblige teachers to take all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of pupils and to participate in supervising pupils when the pupils are on school premises, during school time and/or on school activities.

Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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Question 622: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the reason a school (details supplied) is to lose a teacher resulting in larger class sizes; the action that can be taken for the school not to lose this teacher; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46905/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I have consistently said that 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.

When the country was able to afford it we reduced the basis on which primary teachers are allocated to schools from being based on an average number of primary pupils per teacher from 35 pupils in 1995/96 down to the current level of 27 pupils. This is reflected in the improvements that we have made on class sizes over the years and these improvements reflect our commitment to education. The change to a new average of 28 pupils per teacher from September 2009 has to be viewed in that context. Although it reverses some of the progress that we have made in recent years I had no option but to curtail the annual increase in teacher numbers. The reduced class sizes for the most disadvantaged in our DEIS schools of an average of 1 teacher for every 20 pupils in Junior classes and an average of 1 teacher for every 24 pupils in Senior classes will not be changing in 2009.

While the budget measures will impact on class sizes it will be necessary in the more testing economic climate ahead for us to continue to target and prioritise our resources to maximum effect for everyone. While teacher numbers are important numerous influential reports have highlighted the fact that teacher quality is the single most important factor — far and above anything else — in improving educational outcomes for children. Ensuring high quality teaching and learning is a challenge and dealing with factors that inhibit it represent a challenge for the Government, the Department, school management and indeed the teacher unions.

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 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.

I am confident that as the global economy improves it will be possible to build again on the significant achievements of recent years and do so in a manner consistent with overall prudent management of the Irish economy.