I propose to take Questions Nos. 178 and 182 together.
The Government's approach to restoring the economy has helped Ireland to return to a position where we are seeing economic growth. It is a continuing improvement in our economic growth over a sustained period that will enable us to move to a point where we can look again at providing for additional teacher resources in schools which could bring about an improvement in PTR, class size and support for classroom teachers. In the meantime, my Department's focus is on targeting any available resources to cater for the continued increase in student numbers across primary, post-primary and third level. If in future years there is funding available to reduce class sizes my preference is that it would be targeted at reducing class sizes at the infant years.
We have a growing population of young people in this country and despite the difficult financial circumstances we face as a country, we prioritised education so that the number of teachers we have in the system has also grown in order to protect existing pupil teacher ratios. There were a thousand more teachers employed in schools around the country in the last school year, than there was the year before. There will be a further increase of circa 1,300 teachers in the current school year. This is a very significant investment at a time of scarce resources.
The staffing arrangements for schools currently include the provision where schools experiencing rapid increases in enrolment can apply for additional permanent mainstream posts on developing grounds. Such posts are provisionally approved pending confirmation of actual enrolment on the following 30th September.