Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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318. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of reducing the pupil-teacher ratio at primary level by one point in budget 2018. [34492/17]

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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319. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of reducing average class sizes to 23 at primary level in budget 2018. [34493/17]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 318 and 319 together.

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.  The staffing schedule for post primary will be 19:1 for the 2017/18 school year. The allocation for guidance provision 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.

Each 1 point adjustment to the staffing schedule is estimated to cost in the region of €15m - €18m per annum.

It is my intention to make further improvements to class sizes over the life of the Government. However, I recognise that there are needs across the system which have to be balanced in the decisions made in each Budget.