Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O'Sullivan has just announced that the Government has agreed the implementation of two new policies to better support the sustainability of small schools, and particularly those in isolated areas.

The INTO welcomed the proposals stating that the reintroduction of retention figures at which schools will be able to retain existing teachers will provide a measure of stability to small schools in the event of a fall in numbers.

The new retention schedule for the 2015/16 school year will be:

• 19 pupils rather than 20 to retain a second teacher
• 53 pupils rather than 56 to retain a third teacher
• 83 pupils rather than 86 to retain a fourth teacher  

At the moment, Ireland has 44 primary schools with only one teacher.

The Minister also announced a new appointment and retention number for a second teacher in isolated schools of 15 pupils rather than 20 at present. 

Jan O'Sullivan spoke to Jonathan Healy on Lunchtime today about the issue and stated that she was "very conscious of the importance of small schools in rural communities and it's something that I wanted to address.

"The measures I'm proposing today are designed first of all to protect schools that have three and four teachers to ensure that they don't become not viable and secondly, to allow the conversation in local communities around what's best for them."

The Minister also denied that they had one eye on the election and stated that it was an issue that she was concerned with since she became Minister.

She also spoke about publishing the Value for Money report.

You can listen to the interview here: