Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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Question 673: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Skills if she will provide a county-by-county breakdown of the number of children in classes of 30 or more during the 2009-2010 school year; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31184/10]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Statistics Section of my Department's website contains information relating to class size in primary schools for the school years 2006/07 to 2008/09. The information includes the number of pupils in each class, the number of pupils in each class size range and the number of teachers in each school. The primary census for the 2009/10 school year is currently underway and the final outcome will be made available on 1 September, 2010.

The Deputy will also be aware that the renewed Programme for Government commits the Government to no further increase in the pupil teacher ratio in primary and second level schools for the lifetime of this Government and also the provision of 500 additional teaching posts between primary and second levels over a three year period.

The initial tranches of these additional posts have been allocated and, at primary level, this has enabled some improvement to the primary staffing schedule for the 2010/11 school year. The improvement has been targeted at medium to larger size schools which typically are under the greatest pressure in relation to class sizes.