Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 407: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the way he proposes to address the issue of reduced woodwork places at a school in County Kildare resulting in loss of woodwork classes in the case of a person (details supplied) in County Kildare a first year student who began woodwork class in September 2008 and who has lost their place due to the reduction in teaching staff arising from the budgetary cuts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47606/08]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Teacher allocations to all second level schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. In accordance with these rules each school management authority is required to organise its subject options within the limit of its approved teacher allocation. It is a matter for the school to employ teachers up to the limit of its approved allocation and at its discretion to deploy those teachers to the subject areas that the school chooses to provide.

The 2009 Budget required difficult choices to be made across all areas of public expenditure. Decisions were made in order to control expenditure and to ensure sustainability in the long term. In this respect Education, while protected to a much greater extent than most other areas of public expenditure, could not be entirely spared, and I acknowledge the impact of funding restrictions in a number of areas, including at school level. However, these are the inevitable result of the challenging economic environment and the need to manage Exchequer resources prudently.

Specific information in relation to the detailed staffing allocations that individual schools will have for the commencement of the academic year 2009/10 cannot be determined until the allocation processes have fully concluded. There is nothing exceptional in this. The allocation processes include appellate mechanisms under which schools can appeal against the allocation due to them under the staffing schedules. This is particularly relevant at post-primary level where the appellate process considers in particular any specific curricular needs of the school concerned. Up to now there has not been an effective system wide redeployment scheme at post-primary but discussions on the arrangements for redeployment that will apply in the case of teachers that become surplus in situations other than school closure will re-commence shortly and the parties have agreed that these discussions will be finalised by end March 2009. Discrete allocations are made to post-primary schools for example to cater for pupils with Special Educational Needs and those with Language difficulties and these allocations can alter the ultimate position of the school in relation to any over quota position.

The measures regarding the pupil teacher ratio, announced in the recent budget, are due to take effect in the 2009/10 school year.