Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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534. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of two-teacher primary schools that would have lost a second teacher in 2015-2016 but now stand to retain a second teacher on the basis of the changes she announced on 17 February 2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8014/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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535. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of three-teacher primary schools that would have lost a third teacher in 2015-2016 but now stand to retain a third teacher on the basis of the changes she announced on 17 February 2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8015/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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536. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of four-teacher primary schools that would have lost a fourth teacher in 2015-2016 but now stand to retain a third teacher on the basis of the changes she announced on 17 February 2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8016/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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537. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of three-teacher primary schools that would in 2014-2015 have a fourth teacher if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been in place for the purposes of staffing in 2014-2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8017/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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538. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of two-teacher primary schools that would in 2014-2015 have a third teacher if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been in place for the purposes of staffing in 2014-2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8018/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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539. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of one-teacher primary schools that would in 2014-2015 have a second teacher if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been in place for the purposes of staffing in 2014-2015; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8019/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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540. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of two-teacher primary schools that became one-teacher primary schools on foot of the budget 2012 changes that would have retained a second teacher in 2014-2015 if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been introduced in budget 2012; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8020/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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541. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of three-teacher primary schools that became two-teacher primary schools on foot of the budget 2012 changes, that would have retained a third teacher in 2014-2015 if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been introduced in budget 2012; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8021/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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542. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of four-teacher primary schools that became three-teacher primary schools on foot of the budget 2012 changes but would have retained a fourth teacher in 2014-2015 if the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 had been introduced in budget 2012; and if she will provide a tabular breakdown, by relevant county and local authority area. [8022/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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546. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full-year cost of the measures she announced on 17 February 2015 with regard to primary schools; and the estimated additional full-year cost of changing appointment thresholds to the level of the retention thresholds she announced for same. [8026/15]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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547. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated additional full-year cost, over and above any costs resultant from the changes she announced on 17 February 2015, of restoring the small school staffing schedule that existed in 2011-2012. [8027/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 534 to 542, inclusive, and 546 and 547 together.

The staffing arrangements for primary schools for the 2015/16 school year were published last week. They are set out in Department Circular 0005/2015 which is available on my Department's website at www.education.gov.ie.The circular sets out the improvements to the staffing schedule for the 2015/16 school year for small schools. These improvements are improved retention thresholds for the 2nd, 3rd and 4th classroom teacher and also the improved appointment and retention thresholds for isolated one-teacher schools. These improvements are estimated to benefit of the order of about 30 small schools. The final number of schools to benefit from these improvements to the staffing schedule will be known in the Autumn after the teacher allocation process has fully transacted. The full year cost of 30 posts is circa. €1.8m (€0.6m in 2015) and is being managed within the Department's budget.

These improvements particularly recognise the challenges faced by very small schools that are more than 8km from the next nearest school of the same type.

This package of measures will provide rural communities with security about the future of their small schools, recognising the essential social function which small schools can play, especially in isolated communities.

These improvements in the Staffing Schedule for small schools are the only changes that I am making to the staffing arrangements for primary schools for the 2015/16 school year.

The Deputy has sought information on what the impact of these improvements would be for the 2014/15 school year if they were also applicable to this school year. Firstly, I wish to make clear that they are not applicable to this year. They come into effect from 1 September 2015. Secondly, there is no scope within my Department to do the detailed analysis requested by the Deputy in relation to the 2014/15 school year given that the focus is now on the staffing and redeployment arrangements for the coming school year. However, the number of schools benefiting for the 2015/16 school year could be used as a guide for the number of schools that would benefit for the 2014/15 school year.

The cumulative savings achieved to date from the 2012 small schools budget measure are of the order of €20m. The number of posts lost is about 120 posts and the number of posts not gained is about 80 posts as a result of the increased pupil thresholds. This gives an indication of the overall costs involved in relation to restoring teacher numbers in small schools.