Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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121. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the degree to which class sizes and pupil-teacher ratios continue to improve arising from the steps taken over the past three years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32005/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Budget 2017 sets out the resources available for schools in the 2017/18 school year.  This Budget represents the start of a major reinvestment in education, and the first phase of implementation of the Action Plan for Education, aimed at becoming the best education system in Europe within a decade.  The budget provides for over 2,400 additional teaching posts for our primary and post-primary schools in the coming school year. 

Budget 2016 provided for an improvement in the staffing schedule in primary schools by 1 point, from 1 teacher for every 28 pupils to 1 teacher for every 27 pupils for the 2016/17 school year and it should be noted that the current staffing schedule of 27:1 for primary schools has restored it to the position it was at prior to the fiscal crisis. There is no change in relation to the staffing schedule of 27:1 that will apply to primary schools for the 2017/18 school year. The staffing schedule for post primary will be 19:1 for the 2017/18 school year. The Guidance allocation which is equivalent to 0.4:1 in the staffing schedule is being provided separately.

The 2017/18 school year will see a significant increase of over 4,800 in teacher numbers in our schools compared to the 2015/16 school year.  

The Confidence and Supply Agreement and the Programme for Government has a commitment to reduce class sizes at primary level and it is my intention to make further improvements to class sizes over the life of the Government. However, I recognize that there are needs across the system which have to be balanced in the decisions made in each Budget.