Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 17: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the extent to which he has had discussions with the various school authorities here in the matter of reductions in teacher numbers and the consequent deterioration of the pupil-teacher ratio and class sizes arising from cuts announced in Budget 2009; the steps he has taken or proposes to take to alleviate the impact arising therefrom; if he intends to enter into further negotiations in this context; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26687/09]

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.

I undertook to publish information in relation to the allocation of teachers to schools and this was done earlier this year in relation to primary schools. The Deputy may be interested to know that information on the current position regarding teacher allocations to second level schools, whether enrolment related or otherwise, will be published on my Department's website in the coming week. My intention is that, just as is the case with the information provided in relation to primary schools, this information will identify the changed position for second level schools and VECs arising from the October budget decisions. The information will be further updated later in the year when final allocations are determined.

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 retaining teachers, though over quota.