THE Minister for Education will announce next week that the Department will retain 600 primary teaching posts which would otherwise have been lost due to falling pupil numbers.
Ms Breathnach will make the announcement during her address to the Irish National Teachers Organisation annual conference in Killarney on Tuesday. It will conclude two months of difficult negotiations with the INTO over the issue, which were frequently at the point of breakdown and were discussed by the Cabinet.
The news was welcomed last night by INTO general secretary, Senator Joe O'Toole.
The Minister will say that some of the retained posts will go towards further improving the pupil-teacher ratio in primary schools. Other allocations flowing from the so-called "demographic dividend" will be carried out in consultation with the INTO.
Last autumn 11,000 fewer children entered primary schools than the previous year. Such declining pupil numbers have been a feature of primary education since the early 1990s.
It is understood that schools in disadvantaged areas and those attended by children with special needs will benefit particularly from the retention of the teacher posts.
The Minister has retained 1,300 primary school teachers in the past four years as pupil numbers have fallen. She has used some of them in initiatives such as the Breaking the Cycle programme for disadvantaged schools, The Early Start programme of pre-school education, and to maintain the number of teachers in small rural schools.
Senator O'Toole said last night that the net number of posts retained would be just over 400 with the others covering for retiring teachers.
He said teachers would recognise the Minister's announcement as an important move in the right direction".
"The retention of the demographic dividend in primary education is crucial to the protection of the basic service.
"Nonetheless, we must recognise that it will not at all deal with the need for additional teachers to meet remediation needs. Special education needs substitute teachers.