Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 48: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the degree to which he and his Department officials have had discussions with the authorities of the various primary and post-primary schools throughout the country regarding the implementation of the 2009 Budgetary cuts with particular reference to the need to minimise the negative impact on pupil-teacher ratios and the quality, scale and standard of education available to all pupils including those with special needs is not affected to the extent of damaging the future prospects of the children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12012/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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There has been ongoing engagement and discussion with the relevant education partners involving me and/or my senior officials concerning general education matters and specific budgetary matters, since the budget announcements last October.

To be clear there is no doubt that the budget measures concerning staffing will have an impact. There is simply no easy way to control or reduce public expenditure.

At the level of individual schools the changes in relation to the allocation of teaching posts will impact 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. Across the school system generally there will inevitably be an impact on class sizes and at post-primary level the changes will impact on the capacity of individual schools to offer as wide a range of subject choices as heretofore in future years. My Department will through the normal processing of examining applications for curricular concessions endeavour to ensure continuity of provision for those already preparing for the certificate examinations. The changes at second level are therefore more likely to impact on the range of subjects that schools will be able to offer to those starting the Junior or Leaving Certificate programmes next September.

Specifically in relation to special needs I would like to emphasise that the budget provided for a continuation of the allocation of resource teachers based on the recommendations of the National Council for Special Education.

I have been anxious to ensure that the measures are implemented in a transparent and fair manner. 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.

Initial allocation letters have also issued to Post Primary Schools and Vocational Educational Committees. All the above allocations, primary and post-primary 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 the allocation of support teachers, additional posts for schools that are developing rapidly and posts allocated as a result of the appeals processes.

The final staffing position for all schools will ultimately not be known until the Autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed for mainstream classroom teachers and any appeals to the Staffing Appeals Boards will have been considered. The appellate process is particularly relevant at post-primary level where any specific curricular needs of the school concerned are considered. Also at post-primary there is no effective system wide redeployment scheme at present and this can mean that schools may end up retain teachers, though over quota.

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 teacher unions. The teaching profession in Ireland is highly regarded and well paid by international standards. It continues to attract from the top quartile of students which is a key ingredient to the provision of quality education.