Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Brian Cowen has provided for an extra 1,100 teachers in his Pre-Budget Outlook (PBO) to cater for the increase in pupils entering primary schools next September.
The extra teachers are provided for because of an expected 13,000 new pupils entering the school system next year.
Mr Cowen was speaking as he published the new Pre-Budget Outlook (PBO), incorporating the Pre-Budget Estimates for Public Services in 2008.
According to the Minister the extra teachers, along with increases in 2007, will bring the total number of public servants to just under 308,000, an increase of 3 per cent over those serving in December 2006.
Mr Cowen said this actually marked a drop in the number of public sector workers when viewed as a proportion of total numbers employed.
However, the Minister said that there was no provision within the PBO for public sector pay increases, if recommended when the benchmarking body reports at the end of the year.
The benchmarking body is charged with assessing comparisons between pay in the private and public sectors and with recommending increases in public service pay where these are justified on relativity grounds.
The first benchmarking body report recommended average increases of 8.9 per cent in public service pay, however, earlier this week Mr Cowen said the same conditions "do not apply on this occasion".
