More teachers but bill for staff set to fall by over €130m

The Government’s bill for school staff is set to fall by over €130m this year as a result of savings in the Haddington Road Agreement, despite nearly 1,250 more teachers being employed.

With rising student numbers and no changes to staffing schedules or mainstream pupil-teacher ratios, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn’s €7.8bn budget for this year makes provision for more than 62,000 primary and second-level teachers.

The 2% increase, from 60,820 last year, includes an allocation of 830 extra resource teachers to work with students with disabilities after the minister got Cabinet approval to raise a previous cap on their numbers.