63 Mr. Timmins asked the Minister for Education if she has fully used up the allocation for the appointment of remedial teachers in the current school year; and if not, when she will make additional appointments. [9570/96]

All available remedial teacher posts for the current school year have now been allocated. I allocated 55 additional remedial posts to the primary sector with effect from September 1995. A further 73 posts were allocated to the second level sector.

As a result of these latest allocations, the number of remedial teachers in the primary sector has now reached 1,188. A total of 350 such teachers are in place at second level. I am not in a position at present to make additional remedial teacher posts available.