Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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44. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to the fact that class sizes here are the second highest of EU members; to set out her views on the fact that class sizes in County Kildare are among the highest here; her plans to tackle this in view of the fact that the increases in her Department's funding is only sufficient to maintain present pupil-teacher ratios given the changing demographics; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [45229/14]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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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. In this regard, there were a thousand more teachers employed in schools around the country in the last school year, than there was the year before. There will be a further increase of circa 1,300 teachers in the current school year.

It is important to point out that within the schools sector we know, from international research, that while class sizes is a factor, the quality of teaching is a far more significant factor in determining outcomes. In terms of international comparison, the last published statistics by the OECD are for the 2011/12 school year. They show Ireland's PTR at slightly above the OECD average and average class size at primary level at 24.4 compared to an OECD average of 21.3. The Department's most recently published statistics are for the 2013/14 school year. They show an average class size at primary level of 24.8.

At primary level the staffing schedule operates in a clear and transparent manner and treats all similar types of schools equally irrespective of location. The configuration of classes and the deployment of classroom teachers are done at local school level. The primary staffing schedule currently operates on the basis of a general average of 1 classroom teacher for every 28 pupils, with lower thresholds for DEIS Band 1 schools.

My Department's guidance to schools is that the number of pupils in any class is kept as low as possible taking all relevant contextual factors into account (e.g. classroom accommodation, fluctuating enrolment etc.). School authorities are also requested, where possible, to use their autonomy under the staffing schedule to implement smaller class sizes for junior classes.