Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 July 2014
217. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full year cost of restoring the pupil teacher ratio in the PLC and further education sector that was cut in budget 2013; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [32164/14]
View answerThe pupil teacher ratio (PTR) for the Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) programme was regressed from 17:1 to 19:1 with effect from 1 September 2013 for the start of the 2013/2014 academic year. This brought the PLC allocation into line with the second level allocation. This regression reduced the overall number of PLC teaching posts by 200 whole time equivalent posts. The cost of replacing these posts would be approximately €12 million a year. This is a decision taken in the context of the overall savings this Department had to find for 2013 and future years. It was taken against a difficult budgetary background and there is no scope to re-visit it.
