Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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Question 455: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his views on a query regarding the pupil-teacher ratio (details supplied). [8726/09]

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.

These decisions included the increase of the pupil teacher ratio across all second-level schools from 18:1 to 19:1. In the case of fee-charging post-primary schools, there will be an additional one-point adjustment to 20:1. This is justified on the basis that schools which have access to fees as an income source would be in a better position to maintain services at a time when the public finances are under such severe pressure.