Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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49. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will approve the resources that may be necessary for the allocation of a temporary teaching post until June 2017 for a school (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1300/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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The key factor for determining the level of staffing at individual school level is the staffing schedule for the relevant school year and pupil enrolments on the previous 30th September.  The staffing schedule for the current school year is available in Circular 0007/2016.  The staffing schedule also includes an appeals mechanism for schools to submit an appeal under certain criteria to an independent Primary Staffing Appeals Board.

The school referred to by the Deputy submitted an application to the Appeals Board under the Small Schools criteria.  In order to be granted a second teacher for this school year, the school needed to have an enrolment of 19 on 30th September 2016.  As the school had an enrolment of 17 on that date, the Appeals Board determined that the appeal did not satisfy the criteria published in the staffing schedule.  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 a second teacher where the school has a minimum enrolment of 15 pupils across 6 or more class groups.  This new measure is in recognition of the challenges faced by the teacher having to teach 6 class groups or more.  This measure will be introduced in September for the 2017/18 school year.  The detailed arrangements for this measure will be set out in the staffing schedule for the 2017/18 school year which will be published in the coming weeks.