Concern was expressed by education representatives last night over the future of 200 teaching posts which look like being scrapped due to expenditure cuts.
According to a memo published at the weekend, the Department of Education intends to make savings of €5 million by not making certain teaching appointments which were agreed as part of PPF.
While the Department refused to comment last night, it is understood this is a reference to 200 jobs agreed during the tenure of the last minister for education, Dr Michael Woods.
While the jobs were agreed, the appointments have not been made. The teaching unions have been pressing for the 200 posts to be allocated around schools.
Mr George O'Callaghan, general secretary of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB), which represents hundreds of second-level schools, said it was "deplorable" the Department was planning to cut back on teacher recruitment. He said the pupil-teacher ratio was already too high at 18:1.
Mr Derek Dunne, president of the TUI, said cutbacks in agreed teacher appointments would be a breach of the PPF. The 200 jobs were meant to be targeted at disadvantaged schools. Teaching unions had been "kept in the dark" about how cuts would be implemented, and the TUI was calling on the Minister, Mr Dempsey, to provide proper information.
The memo also mentions €2 million of cuts in career development programmes and a €10 million cut in VEC spending. The VECs operate many disadvantage programmes and it is understood many of these are likely to be curbed because of the Department's reduction in spending.
Mr O'Callaghan said: "When faced with an economic downturn in the 80s, education was again targeted for large cuts in expenditure.The education system has never recovered from that period of retrenchment. It looks again as if education is to be the target for a significant element of cutback in expenditure."