Pupil-Teacher Ratio

1201. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Education and Youth given the Programme for Government commits to reducing the pupil-teacher ratio to 19:1, and the current pupil-teacher ratio stands at 23:1, when this reduction will be implemented; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43076/25]

1203. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Education and Youth if consideration will be given to the implementation of a pro-rata administration time allowance for deputy principals given the fact that a school with 572 pupils has the same day time administration allocation as a school with 170 pupils; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43082/25]

1213. Deputy Cormac Devlin asked the Minister for Education and Youth the timeline for achieving the Programme for Government commitment to reduce primary school class sizes to the EU average; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43385/25]

1305. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education and Youth the average, median, maximum and minimum primary school class sizes for the Cork City and Cork County Council area from 2019 to date in 2025, in tabular form. [44252/25]

101. Deputy Paula Butterly asked the Minister for Education and Youth if a review can be carried out on the process for assessing teaching allocations, given a number of primary schools in County Louth have been affected by the loss of a teacher while managing class sizes in excess of 30 pupils per class, contrary to the recently published figure of 22 pupils per class being the national average; …

144. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Education and Youth the steps her Department have undertaken to reduce the pupil teacher ratio in an effort to maintain teaching posts while there is a temporary dip in primary school enrolment numbers; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [40137/25]

81. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth the estimated first and full year cost of reducing the pupil-teacher ratio by one point in secondary schools. [39767/25]

45. Deputy Michael Cahill asked the Minister for Education and Youth to urgently address concerns (details supplied) and ensure that multi-grade classroom teacher pupil ratio will be given favourable consideration; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38013/25]

64. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 372 of 1 July 2025, if she will review the current staffing appeals process to provide a mechanism for escalation or reconsideration where decisions result in disproportionately large class sizes at individual year levels; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38222/25]

65. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 372 of 1 July 2025, if she will consider reforming the staffing allocation model to include safeguards that prevent individual classes in primary schools from exceeding a defined pupil threshold, such as a maximum class size of 20; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38223/25]

66. Deputy Barry Heneghan asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 372 of 1 July 2025, if she will consider supporting legislative proposals to establish a national classroom size cap and to move towards a more transparent, needs-based staffing model for primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [38224/25]

116. Deputy Conor Sheehan asked the Minister for Education and Youth for a timeline within which the Government will reduce class sizes to 19 pupils, as stated in the programme for Government; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [36565/25]

288. Deputy Darren O'Rourke asked the Minister for Education and Youth further to Parliamentary Question No. 327 of 12 June 2025, the number of teachers required to reduce the teacher pupil ratio to 19:1 and 18:1 respectively. [33379/25]

373. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth the estimated cost of reducing the pupil teacher ratio by 1 point at primary level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31786/25]

374. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth the estimated cost of reducing the pupil teacher ratio by 1 point at second level; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [31787/25]

455. Deputy Pat Buckley asked the Minister for Education and Youth to reduce primary school class sizes to 19 pupils. [32655/25]

157. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she will introduce a legal maximum class size for primary and post-primary schools; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [30981/25]

220. Deputy Paul Murphy asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she is aware of the case of a school (details supplied) in which classes will be merged due to the school not meeting the threshold to retain staff which will result in a class of around 34 students in the next academic year, creating an extremely high student to teacher ratio; if she will request her Department to address this …

580. Deputy Robert O'Donoghue asked the Minister for Education and Youth if she considers a class size of 39 pupils to be excessive for a single teacher; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [23713/25]

180. Deputy Jen Cummins asked the Minister for Education and Youth the estimated cost of reducing average class sizes in mainstream primary schools by two pupils per class for the period 1 October to 31 December 2026; the estimated cost of maintaining this reduction for a full year, from 1 January to 31 December 2027, with the same detailed breakdown of additional expenditure. [22392/25]

857. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Education the average, median, maximum and minimum primary school class sizes for the Cork City and Cork County Council area from 2019 to date in 2024, in tabular form. [19242/25]

181. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education if the announced reduction in pupil teacher ratio will be introduced for the coming school year, where a school could potentially loose a teacher, only to be forced to recruit additional teachers the subsequent year, due to significant population growth in the area, and given the difficulties of recruiting teachers. [17153/25]

512. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Education to report on her Department’s efforts to reduce the student to teacher ratio in primary schools. [17175/25]

513. Deputy Maeve O'Connell asked the Minister for Education to report on her Department’s efforts to reduce the student to teacher ratio in post-primary schools. [17176/25]

118. Deputy Peter 'Chap' Cleere asked the Minister for Education the general pupil ratio in Kilkenny and Carlow schools in 2024, and how it is aimed to reduce this ratio to 19; the targeted measures that will be introduced in schools with large classes; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [16018/25]