Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17 ============================================================ Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. At the outset, I commend the fantastic job that all of the teachers and staff within our schools do. While I take the opportunity whenever I can in my role, particularly last year as Minister for education, I had an opportunity to travel right around the country to meet with many teachers, SNAs, secretaries, principals, caretakers and assistants - everybody who plays a significant role in the education of our children. The work they do is absolutely phenomenal and I want to acknowledge that here. That is why Government is investing a record €14.1 billion in education and the intention very clearly is to continue that investment. We can look at the number of people employed in our schools, which is important for the question the Deputy has asked. Teacher numbers at primary level increased by almost 6,000 between 2019 and 2025. We have seen a massive increase in the number of teachers who have been employed. During that time, we also saw a massive increase in the number of SNAs and the number of assistants who have been employed. Over 24,000 are now teaching in our schools, supporting our teachers and most importantly supporting our children as well. In terms of the overall staffing schedule and the overall ratio, based on that investment we have gone from 26:1 five years ago down to 23:1 for the current school year. When the number of SNAs and assistants within a classroom is taken into account, it brings the overall number down. At the same time, I appreciate that for some classrooms the numbers are much higher. I appreciate that for some schools, while they might be around the average, some classes are much higher and we want to try to bring the numbers down as quickly as possible or in the most stable way possible. There is a clear commitment within the programme for Government that we would bring that 21 number down to 19 and it is a commitment that we have said we will reach within the lifetime of the Government. The Minister for education will obviously be engaging with the Minister for public expenditure and reform. How that is decided and what priorities are set this year are matters for the Minister, but I know that she will be seeking to get as many resources as possible and to provide as much support as possible to our teachers and importantly to our children as well. As the Deputy knows, we have more favourable ratios implemented for the DEIS urban band 1 schools. We have again seen the highest level of investment in our DEIS schools, making sure that those who need our help the most, particularly because of perhaps their family background, because of where they are from or because of instances that have happened in their lives, are provided with as much support as possible. I fully agree with the Deputy. My own little man went off to school this year and I see the impact that a teacher can have on the environment in a classroom. That can have a long-lasting impact on a child, whether they like school, whether they want to go to school, the dynamic in the classroom, but also how they learn and how that then sets them up for later in life. We need to do what we can do to reduce the numbers to provide as much class time as possible between students and their teachers, their SNAs, their assistants. That is our objective and our goal. It is why the money allocated to education has increased and why I hope in this year's budget we will see a further increase again. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-17