Paul Gogarty (Dublin Mid West, Green Party)
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Question 633: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if he will report on progress made in objectively identifying the 200 additional new teaching posts agreed in the Revised Programme for Government and allocated as part of Budget 2010; the education partners that have been consulted regarding same; when a finalised list will be completed; if the schools gaining the additional posts will be publicised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4458/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The renewed Programme for Government provides for 500 teaching posts to schools over the next three years over and above additional posts that will arise due to demographic increases. Following consultation with the education partners clear and transparent criteria have been agreed for the allocation of these posts. One hundred posts will be allocated to each sector, primary and post-primary in the current school year. The education partners consulted in each sector were school management bodies, teachers' and parents' representatives.

At primary level posts have been allocated to schools that had increased enrolments in the current school year and which, as a result of last year's pupil-teacher ratio change, lost out on a teaching post in this year by either one, two or three pupils. My Department has contacted the schools in question and in the interest of transparency the list of schools has also been published on my Department's website.

The list will be fully completed when the 30 September 2009 enrolment returns are received from the remaining schools that have not yet submitted them to my Department.

At post primary level and with immediate effect, the current rule based arrangements for the allocation of learning support posts to schools have been revised and a revised staffing schedule has issued in recent days from my Department to the schools in question. Agreement has also been reached on the allocation of 50 additional posts to the primary sector and 100 to the post-primary sector for the coming school year, 2010/11. At primary level as these posts are additional to those required to cater for demographic growth, some improvement will be made to the staffing schedule for the 2010/11 school year. These improvements will be targeted at medium-to-larger schools typically under the greatest pressure in relation to class sizes.

At post-primary level, additional supports will be targeted at co-educational schools in single post-primary catchment areas and at schools that join together with other local post primary schools to increase subject choice in a town.