Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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149. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills her plans for primary school education; if she has any plans to restore teachers' pay and conditions, including newly qualified teachers; to reduce class sizes to 20 pupils; to reverse cuts to the delivering equality of opportunity in schools scheme; to reverse cuts to special needs education; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [33978/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I have already indicated that I am determined that education should be prioritised for investment as our economy recovers and I will be seeking to agree a set of priorities for such increased investment into the future. The challenge for all schools is to ensure that they utilise their allocated resources to best effect to maximise teaching and learning outcomes.

On the capital side, the Government recently announced a very significant investment of more than €4 billion in capital funding for education projects over the next six years. This will fund the construction of additional school places at primary level to address demographic demand, the refurbishment of schools in older buildings, the replacement of prefabs with permanent accommodation and investment in IT and wireless broadband capacity in schools.

In relation the specific areas mentioned by the Deputy:

1. Restoring teachers' pay and conditions including newly qualified teachers

Since the beginning of the financial crisis, there has been a need to enact a number of measures to reduce public expenditure. The previous Government reduced the salaries and allowances payable of all new entrants to public service recruitment grades (including teachers) by 10% with effect from 1 January 2011 and required that such new entrants would start on the first point of the applicable salary scale.

Subsequently, following the public service-wide review of allowances and premium payments, the Government decided to withdraw or modify allowances for new beneficiary public servants with effect from 1 February 2012. Under this decision, certain allowances were withdrawn for new beneficiary teachers, including qualification allowances. However, the Government partially compensated for this by deciding that new entrant teachers would henceforth commence on a new salary scale which had a starting point higher than the starting point of the old scale.

Alleviation of the salary imbalance between those who entered the public service since 2011 and those who entered before that date began under the Haddington Road Agreement. Improved pay scales for post-1 January 2011 and post-1 February 2012 entrants to teaching were agreed and implemented under the terms of that Agreement. In addition, allowances payable to post-1 January 2011 entrants and such allowances as remain payable to post-1 February 2012 entrants were restored to pre-2011 levels.

The Lansdowne Road Agreement has, through salary increases and a reduction in the Pension-Related Deduction, begun the process of restoring the reductions to public service pay which were implemented over recent years. The issue of equalised pay scales was not one which could be resolved in the discussions which lead to the Agreement. However, the flat-rate increases contained in the Agreement will be proportionately more favourable to new entrants to teaching (who are lower on the pay scale) than to longer serving teachers. The LRA proposals have been accepted by the INTO and are currently under consideration by the post-primary teacher unions, ASTI and TUI.

In addition, in order to address concerns about the casualisation of employment in the teaching profession, my Department recently implemented the seven key recommendations of the Expert Group on Fixed-term and Part-time Employment in Teaching, which was established under the HRA. This will enable newly qualified teachers who are on fixed-term contracts to acquire permanent positions more easily and quickly and part-time teachers to gain additional hours.

2. Reducing class sizes

In addressing the INTO Congress earlier this year, I made clear that I personally believe that improving class sizes could deliver better outcomes, and that reducing class sizes will be a personal and political priority for me during 2015.

3. Reversing cuts to the DEIS Scheme

The Deputy will be aware that I have recently begun a process to review the DEIS Programme. This work will be ongoing during the current school year and I will consider all issues pertaining to educational disadvantage in all areas. I hope to be in a position to make an overall proposal for the delivery of future interventions to tackle educational disadvantage after that. As I have previously announced, I do not intend to make any changes to the current programme, including any additionality to it, while the review is underway.

4. Special needs education

In July of this year, I announced that that up to 610 additional Special Needs Assistant (SNA) posts would be made available for allocation to schools from September 2015. This decision reflects the Government's commitment to ensure that every child with an assessed care need has access to a SNA. The additional 610 posts being provided means that a total of 11,940 SNA posts are now available for the National Council for Special Education (NCSE) to allocate to primary, post primary, and special schools. The number of SNA posts available for schools has risen by almost 13% during the lifetime of this Government, having risen from 10,575 posts in 2011 to 11,940 posts available for the 2015/16 school year.

In May of this year, I also announced that the NCSE would increase its allocation of Resource Teacher Posts to schools by over 9% for the start of the coming school year. The NCSE allocated 6,454 resource teacher posts to schools for September 2015, which is an increase of 554 posts (or 9.4%) since September 2014 and a total increase of 1,169 posts (or 22%) since September 2013. It is therefore clear that not only has there not been a reduction in the overall number of resource teaching posts and hours being allocated to schools, but that there has been a very significant increase in the overall allocation to schools in recent years.

The NCSE is also in the process of finalising a second round allocation process to respond to late enrolments, or from diagnosed disabilities emerging after the closing date for the first allocation round, to the start of the new school year.

Even in the constrained economic circumstances we have faced in recent years, we have been able to continue to meet the needs of children with special educational needs attending our schools. This year we have again increased the number of Resource Teachers which will be allocated to schools, keeping pace with both demographic growth and increased demand.

The NCSE has recommended that a new model be developed for allocating resource teachers to schools. My Department has devised a pilot of the new model which is taking place in a number of schools during the 2015/16 school year. In taking the decision to conduct a pilot of the new model, I have been guided by the advice of the NCSE Working Group report, which recommended sufficient time be allowed for consultation before the new model is implemented. I therefore do not propose to amend the existing allocation process, pending the completion of the pilot project and the introduction of a new allocation model.