Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 383: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the need for a school (details supplied) to retain its home school liaison in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47458/08]

Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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Question 384: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the need for a school (details supplied) to retain its disadvantaged concessionary post in 2009; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47459/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 383 and 384 together.

The school to which the Deputy refers is among the schools that were judged by an independent identification process in 2005 not to have a sufficient level of disadvantage among their pupils to warrant their inclusion in DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunities in Schools), the Action Plan for educational inclusion. The next identification process is scheduled to be held at the end of the current DEIS programme which runs from 2005-2010. There will not be an opportunity before this to be included in the current DEIS programme of supports.

This school together with 26 other urban primary and 73 post primary schools retained resources, both human and financial, including Home School Community Liaison and concessionary disadvantaged posts under pre-existing schemes and programmes for addressing educational disadvantage. When DEIS was introduced, a commitment was given as a concessionary measure to these schools that they would retain a level of support for the duration of the DEIS Initiative.

While it is appreciated that the discontinuation of these resources will impact on these schools, given the current challenging economic climate, I considered that it was prudent to advance the withdrawal of such supports from non DEIS schools to the beginning of the next school year.

The main focus of Social Inclusion measures will be to retain resources in DEIS schools. There is a need to focus targeted resources on the schools in most need and this approach is in line with the broad thrust of the recommendations of the Comptroller and Auditor General which are set out in his report on Primary Disadvantage of 2006, which recommended that my Department should focus its educational disadvantage measures on those schools serving the most disadvantaged communities.

Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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Question 385: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will make contact with the board of management of a school (details supplied) in Dublin 24 and take action in respect of their serious concerns regarding teacher numbers for 2009; if he will ask his officials to work with the school on the matter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47460/08]

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 395: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if his attention has been drawn to the concern among parents and staff regarding the impact of the proposed education cuts on a school (details supplied) in Dublin 11. [47515/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 385 and 395 together.

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. 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.

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 and grant 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 have no difficulty in setting out for this House or for the public generally the overall changes on aggregate teacher numbers or on grant levels 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 and 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.

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.