Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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263. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when changes to maternity and adoptive leave for teachers and special needs assistants will come into effect; if this will apply only to teachers taking maternity leave after a specified date or will it apply to teachers currently out on maternity leave; the number of teachers that will be affected by these changes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2965/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Under previous arrangements teachers and SNAs who had been absent on maternity leave could avail of a maximum of 30 additional paid absence days in lieu of any school closures which overlapped with the 26 week period of maternity leave to which they were entitled. Teachers and SNAs who had been absent on statutory unpaid maternity leave could also avail of leave in lieu for public holidays which occurred during that period. These additional days, which were taken during a period when the school was open, required the school to employ a substitute teacher or SNA to cover the absence.

Statistics are normally provided by my Department on a school year basis and, for the 2011/12 school year, 2378 teachers and 294 Special Needs Assistants availed of maternity leave in lieu. The Government has decided it is no longer justifiable to provide additional paid days off for those on maternity leave and this arrangement has been ended. This will not affect a teacher or SNA's entitlements to 26 weeks' paid leave and an optional 16 weeks' unpaid maternity leave. A similar change has been made to adoptive leave in lieu.

I am conscious that teachers may be already planning their maternity leave arrangements and I have given the sector as much notice as possible before implementing this change. It will take effect from 1 May 2013, and will deliver savings of up to €20m in a full year. Days in lieu of maternity leave will not be accrued on and from 1 May 2013 but any remaining leave in lieu on that date may be taken after it.

My alternative choice in this Budget was to increase the pupil-teacher ratio for all mainstream schools and I decided to retain the existing ratio in order to avoid having larger class sizes for our children.