asked the Minister for Education if she has considered the appeal by St. Joseph's national school, Barry Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11, for additional staff in view of the urgent need for such staff; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
54.
Written Answers. - Additional Staff for Dublin School.
43.
asked the Minister for Education if she will make further staffing concessions to St. Joseph's school, Barry Avenue, Finglas, Dublin 11 in view of (a) its anomalous position in relation to other schools in the area all of which were awarded a concessionary post in the mid-1980's (b) their exciting programme for the integration of the settled and travelling communities (c) the impossibility of doing justice to the children with mixed classes of 34/39 in an area of high deprivation and (d) the fact that they were only five short of the numbers required for the acquisition of an extra teacher.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 43 and 54 together.
The staffing arrangements in the school in question in the current year have been determined in accordance with the agreement between the Government and the INTO, worked out under the auspices of the Central Review Committee for the Programme for National Recovery. The implementation of this agreement is the matter of ongoing consultations between the Department and school interests in relation to developing schools and schools where maximum class sizes are exceeded. Under these arrangements, the appointment of an additional teacher in the school in question may not be approved at present.
My Department are not in a position at present to include any further schools in the special scheme of additional teaching assistance for schools serving disadvantaged areas, but the application of this school will be considered, along with the very many other applications received, when resources permit the allocation of additional posts under this scheme.
I have already this year sanctioned an additional teacher in this school to cater for the needs of the travelling children enrolled, thus bringing the number of such special teachers to five.