The Department of Education is reportedly planning to increase the pupil-teacher ratio in both primary and secondary schools in an effort to save the State up to €75m.

The state of Ireland's education system is worse than a recent report which showed that Ireland’s primary schools have bigger class sizes than almost every other developed country, the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) said today.

Fine Gael has today criticised Minister for Education Mary Hanafin for what it says is her "regurgitation of old promises" in relation to class sizes.

Minister for Education Mary Hanafin today accepted that more needed to be done to reduce class sizes.

The issue of class sizes is set to dominate the agenda at the annual conferences of Ireland's two secondary teachers unions this week.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has today promised to reduce class sizes if Fianna Fáil gets back into power.

The Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said commitments to cut class sizes to 20 by 2007 were a "noble aspiration" - but they would not be met.

The Labour party has slammed the Minister for Education's admission that the Government will not be fully honouring its commitment on reducing primary school class sizes.

Irish National Teachers' Organisation (INTO) president John Carr has demanded a meeting with the Department of Education to discuss the issue of class size.

The Irish National Teachers' Organisation has reacted angrily to the Minister for Education's admission that the Government will not be fully honouring its commitment to reducing class sizes.