Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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202. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of additional post-primary school teachers who will be required in each year from September 2016 to September 2021 to maintain the current pupil-teacher ratio; the costs associated with this; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [35166/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Teacher allocations to all schools are approved annually by my Department in accordance with established rules based on recognised pupil enrolment. The criteria for the allocation of posts are communicated to school managements annually and are available on the Department website.

The recruitment and appointment of teachers to fill teaching posts is a matter for the individual school authority, subject to procedures agreed under Section 24(3) of the Education Act 1998 (as amended by the Education (Amendment) Act 2012). The deployment of teaching staff in the school, the range of subjects offered and ultimately the quality of teaching and learning are in the first instance a matter for the school management authorities.

The Statistics Section of my Department's website contains extensive data relating to schools at primary and post-primary level, including teacher numbers. The most recent published information including the post primary PTR 14:2, relates to the 2014/15 school year.

One of my main priorities 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 pupil teacher ratios. There were 2,300 more teachers employed in schools around the country in the last two school years. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources.

At post primary level pupil numbers are projected to increase by an estimated 41,000 by 2021. Based on the published PTR this would require of the order of circa 450 teaching posts per annum in the period to 2021. The current average cost of a teaching post at post primary level is €63,000 per annum.