Reducing the pupil-teacher ratio was not rocket science, Labour spokeswoman on education Jan O'Sullivan told the Dáil.
Three elements were required: extra teachers, extra schools and classrooms, and the revenue and capital resources to pay for them. "They are three basic elements, and they can be delivered if there is the political will."
Speaking during a debate on a Labour Private Member's Motion accusing the Government of reneging on its commitment to reduce class sizes, Ms O'Sullivan said the expected growth in the school-going population should be factored in.
"This is estimated at an extra 100,000 in the next 10 years, and a system must be put in place to pinpoint where those children will be living. Essentially, this is about forward planning, which we have not seen in the system here. That is something other European countries do as a matter of course."
Labour, she said, was proposing that the National Treasury Management Agency be given the task of gathering the information on where and when extra classrooms and schools would be needed, and acquiring the sites on which to build them.
Minister for Education Mary Hanafin said the priority the Government had given to education was unparalleled.
"In 1997 we took over from an administration in which the current leaders of the two main Opposition parties had voted to freeze direct school funding and cut teacher numbers."
Some 10,000 extra teachers had been put in place. Primary school sizes had been reduced to their lowest level ever. Supports for children from disadvantaged areas, and those with special needs, had been dramatically improved.
