Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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160. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the consideration she has given to implementing a reduction on the pupil teacher ratio for junior, senior and first classes within the existing allocation of teachers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40486/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I have already stated publicly that because of increasing demographics my Department requires additional resources to simply maintain existing levels of service. In my pre-budget discussions with the education partners I expressed the hope that continued improvement in the economy over a sustained period will take us to a position where we can make improvements in some areas. The Government's approach to restoring the economy has helped Ireland to return to a position where we are seeing economic growth. It is a continuing improvement in our economic growth over a sustained period that will enable us to move to a point where we can look again at providing for additional teacher resources in schools which could bring about an improvement in PTR, class size and support for classroom teachers.

In the meantime, my Department's focus is on targeting any available resources to cater for the continued increase in student numbers across primary, post-primary and third level. 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.