Written answers

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Department of Education and Science

School Staffing

9:00 pm

Photo of Dan NevilleDan Neville (Limerick West, Fine Gael)
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Question 1076: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will make a statement in respect of a school (details supplied) in County Limerick. [11753/09]

Photo of Batt O'KeeffeBatt 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.

The budget measures will impact on individual schools in different ways depending on whether enrolment is rising or declining and the degree to which any one school has more teachers than it is entitled to under the allocation processes.

In terms of the position at individual school level the key factor for determining the level of resources provided by my Department is the pupil enrolment at 30 September 2008. The annual process of seeking this enrolment data from schools took place in the autumn and the data has since been received and processed in my Department enabling the commencement of the processes by which teaching resources are allocated to schools for the school year that begins next September.

My Department has written to the primary schools that are projected to have a net loss or gain in classroom teaching posts in September, 2009. As part of my efforts to ensure that relevant information is openly available to the public detailed information on the opening position for primary schools is now published on my Department's website. This provisional list sets out the details on individual schools that, taken collectively, are projected to gain 128 posts and to lose 382 posts — a net reduction of 254 posts. It is my intention to have this information updated and ultimately to set out the final position when the allocation processes are completed.

The above allocations are provisional at this stage and reflect the initial allocation position. The final position for any one school will depend on a number of other factors such as additional posts for schools that are developing rapidly and posts allocated as a result of the appeals processes. The operation of redeployment arrangements also impacts on the final position as a teacher can remain in his or her existing school where a suitable redeployment position does not exist. The final staffing position for all schools will therefore not be known until the autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed for mainstream classroom teachers and appeals to the Staffing Appeals Board will have been considered.

Details of the criteria and application dates for appeal are contained in the staffing schedule, Circular 0002/2009, available on my Department's website. The Appeal Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

As part of the expansion of the Small Schools Scheme a grant was allocated to the school referred to by the Deputy to enable the management authority to extend and modernise the existing school building. In the circumstances that contractual commitments have been entered into in relation to the school building works and construction has commenced it would not be feasible to abandon the project at this stage. Accordingly, funding will be provided for its completion.

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