Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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172. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the extent to which she expects to be in a position to address the issue of class sizes in the course of the next two years at primary and post-primary level with particular reference to those schools located in areas of expanding population; the extent to which a strategy is being developed to deal with the situation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38444/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My main priority for any additional resources for the foreseeable future will be to cater for the continuing increase in demographics at all levels in the education system. We have a growing population of young people in this country and despite the difficult financial circumstances we face as a country, we prioritised education so that the number of teachers we have in the system has also grown in order to protect existing pupil teacher ratios. Between this year and last year this has involved an increase of around 2,300 teachers in our primary and post-primary schools. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources. There is no funding available for additional teachers to reduce class sizes and it is premature within our budgetary context to be looking for this to be done.

If in future years there is funding available to reduce class sizes my preference is that it would be targeted at reducing class sizes at the infant years.