Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 179: To ask the Minister for Education and Science his plans to bring pupil-teacher ratios into line with best practice in other EU jurisdictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19517/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Deputy has introduced the issue of comparability of Irish pupil-teacher ratios with the position in schools internationally. Given the momentous challenges that most countries are facing to cope with economic recession, and in the case of some countries to even maintain financial solvency, raising the matter of educational comparisons misses the point. The first priority for Governments throughout the world at present is to ensure economic survival. Ensuring that public services like education can be maintained at a reasonable level is but a subset of that greater priority of securing national solvency. Without economic and fiscal stability, it is axiomatic that public services like education will suffer. The Government is about the business of securing Ireland's future. It is the number 1 priority. In the budget we tried to shelter education services as best we could. Some changes to how schools are to be staffed from next September were unavoidable. Of course it would be desirable to make improvements as originally intended, let alone have to take a step back. However, this is a changed world. It would be sheer folly to allow the overall number of teachers to spiral upwards as if nothing had changed. I have faith in the quality of our teachers and our schools and in their capacity to deliver as well from September 2009 as they did just over a year ago from a similar level staffing and class size position. We need to come through this difficult period. Only then can we look at what further improvements we can make in how we staff schools and reduce class sizes. As the full extent of the global crisis seeps into public consciousness, I believe parents will accept that taking difficult decisions now to secure future economic prosperity and secure employment for them and ultimately their children is the first imperative of the Government.