Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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Question 137: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of teaching posts that have been cut as a result of the 2% reduction in spending for second level teaching salaries and the percentage of this budget that is paid to teachers teaching within the private school sector. [22545/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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This Government has protected education as much as it can. Far greater reductions in expenditure and in the number of public servants are being made in other sectors relative to those in schools. But there are limits to the level of expenditure on education and the number of teaching posts we can afford.

The Budget 2012 measures in relation to the post-primary sector are set out in the documentation that was published by my Department last December. This envisages a net overall reduction of about 450 posts at post-primary level between the current school year and the 2012/13 school year. This net reduction in posts takes account of the impact of the budget measures, demographics and the budget decision to shelter all the DEIS post-primary schools through a reduced staffing schedule of 18.25:1.

The final overall staffing position for all schools at post primary level will ultimately not be known until the Autumn. At that stage the allocation process will be fully completed and any appeals to the Staffing Appeal Board will have been considered.