Dramatic figures released by the Government in answer to a Labour question show that class sizes in Fingal primary schools are among the highest in the whole country according to Labour TD Joan Burton

The real shock, she says, is the revelation that as many as one third of all primary school children in Final are in classes between 30 and 39.

This is in clear breach of a solemn commitment made by Fianna Fail that all children under 9 would be in classes under 20 by 2007.

Now the Minister rather shamefacedly has had to admit this target will not now be met either nationally or locally.

The reason is quite simple. The Government failed to create the extra teacher training places in time to allow the target to be met. Put plainly Ministers sabotaged their own plans by neglecting to put the necessary preparations in place.

Also the school building programme was scaled back so that schools could not have the new classrooms in place to accommodate smaller classes.In fact in 2004 a large part of the money allocated for school repairs was left unused at end of the year.

For communities in Dublin 15 the situation is especially difficult because of the additional pressure on places in both primary and post primary schools due to the extra population settling in the area.

Joan Burton has urged the Minister to take immediate remedial action on those classes that are way over the average size.

“Once a class reaches a certain size it should be split. Otherwise many children don’t get the individual attention they need and this has knock on effects which affect achievement in later stages” she said.