Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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193. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason an appeal to the primary staffing appeals board by a school (details supplied) was deemed unsuccessful; if he will give consideration to the allocation of a second teacher to this school in view of projected growth in enrolment over the coming years; when he will publish the staffing schedule for primary schools for the 2017-18 school year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35749/16]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The criteria used for the allocation of teaching posts for the 2016/2017 school year is set out in the Staffing Schedule (Circular 0007/2016) which is available on the Department website. The key factor for determining the level of staffing resources provided at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the 30 September 2015. The staffing schedule also includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Appeals Board.

The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application for consideration by the Appeals Board at its October meeting under the Small Schools criteria. The requirements set out in the staffing circular under this criteria state that the school must have the required enrolment on 30 September 2016 for the appointment of an additional teacher for September 2017 in order to be granted an appeal post for this school year. In the case of this school, an enrolment of 19 was required on 30 September 2016 to meet this criteria. As the school had an enrolment of 17 on that date, the Appeals Board determined that the appeal did not satisfy all of the published criteria as set out in Circular 0007/2016. The Appeals Board operates independently of the Department and its decision is final.

The measure announced in Budget 2017 provides a capacity for one teacher mainland schools to make an appeal to the Staffing Appeals Board for an extra teacher, where the single teacher has children across 6 or more class groups. Before a school can make an appeal to the Staffing Appeals Board it must have a minimum enrolment of 15 pupils. The detailed arrangements for this measure will be set out in the staffing schedule Circular for the 2017/18 school year. The circular will be published early in 2017.