Richard Bruton
Question:22 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Education and Science the proposals, if any, he has developed to date for allocating the demographic dividend in the forthcoming school year. [11093/98]
Other Questions. - Demographic Dividend Allocation.
As the Deputy will be aware, the 1998 Estimates provide for the retention within the primary system of posts which would otherwise be lost. The effect of this will be to reduce the PTR from 21.7 to less than 21.5 in the coming school year. I expect to be in a position to announce my intentions in regard to the allocation of the demographic dividend very shortly.
Will the Minister indicate if I am correct in assuming that the number of teaching posts involved is 190?
Yes.
Will the Minister indicate his priorities in respect of the various commitments he made in this area? He indicated the 117 one teacher schools, with the exception of the 16 which have ten or more pupils, will get an additional teacher. Can we expect the 117 one teacher schools or, at a minimum, 101 of them, will receive an allocation from the 190 posts?
Will the Minister indicate his approach to remedial teaching? He gave a commitment that pupils in the 741 schools who do not have access to a remedial teacher will be accommodated. Where stands his commitment in the Fianna Fáil manifesto that he will keep in those schools the teachers who will be freed up as a result of falling pupil numbers? I can quote chapter and verse from where that is stated in the manifesto. Where stands his commitment in respect of Breaking the Cycle, early start and the many specialised programmes against disadvantage? There are 190 posts involved, but the Minister has ambitions for the provision of almost 900 additional teachers. Will he seek a Supplementary Estimate to provide that additional teaching resource or will his various promises be shelved?
I have four years to achieve those objectives under the programme for Government and the manifesto. I have stated publicly we will not achieve the objective in respect of all the one teacher schools in the first year, but we will go a significant way towards achieving it. We will make additional resources available in respect of remedial teaching, but it does not involve 741 posts. The Deputy's interpretation of what I said is very simplified. He is aware a remedial post is appointed to a cluster of schools, particularly in rural areas. I have further details on that which apply to a later question. There are other issues pertaining to home-school liaison and resource teachers and I am currently in negotiation and discussions with the INTO on that. We expect they will be concluded shortly in relation to the priorities for this year and we will notify the schools shortly after that.
The Deputy has literally interpreted the commitment given in the manifesto. We gave a commitment we would retain teachers in the system. The Taoiseach and I met Senator Joe O'Toole prior to the general election and the INTO requested the retention of the demographic dividend. It was specific about that request because last year the previous Government refused until very late in the day to sanction the entire demographic dividend to the then Minister. It was only on Good Friday of that year, before the teacher conferences, that a compromise was arrived at whereby the dividend was conceded within Government to the Department of Education. The INTO was concerned that each party going into the election should give a commitment to retain the dividend and we gave such a commitment. Last year there were more than 400 posts available for distribution. I am unlucky because there are only 190 net posts available this year, but we can still make significant progress on the commitments I gave in respect of one teacher schools, remedial teachers and home-school liaison and resource teachers. We are currently negotiating with the INTO which has a number of issues it wishes to discuss with us.
The Minister evaded my question on whether he will allocate additional resources this year.
No, I will not.
That is extremely disappointing. A number of the priorities he set are correct and a number of those issues must be addressed, but he will not be able to do that with the distribution of 190 teachers. He should re-examine some of his priorities, particularly in relation to the disadvantaged.
I do not know what the Minister found out about his history marks when he visited the school in Cork——
They were very good.
Will he agree it is stated in his party's manifesto that schools will keep the teachers who will be freed up by the falling numbers? If he studied his party's manifesto he would note that was the commitment he gave and that it was not a vague principle commitment to keep those teachers in the system.
We made certain commitments in respect of curriculum necessities at second level. A good historian is one who creatively interprets the past.
That is revisionism.
History was my subject before I entered politics.
The Minister is being selective with history.
I studied under Professors Donncha Ó Corráin and others in UCC and history was a useful subject to study, particularly hagiography, and it can still be useful today. We have four years to achieve the targets we set.
The Minister has forgotten what they are.
I respectfully suggest we will probably achieve them within those four years, if not before then. I am examining other measures, apart from the simple approach of allocating posts, in respect of remedial and resource provision.
What about the budget?
We are also examining that and we hope to bring forward more innovative proposals for the 1998 Estimates to improve the position.
Written Answers follow Adjournment Debate.