Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)

The Minister referred to schools that have 33 or more pupils supported by RTT posts. A school with 200 kids of whom 33 are from the Traveller community is entitled to a learning support teacher. However, RTTs are being done away with for schools with fewer than 33 RTT supported pupils. Are they supposed to fall under the remit of the learning support system?

I was approached by Clonroche national school. It has 110 pupils, of whom 23 are from the Traveller community and another 25 are in receipt of learning support. That is a total of 48 kids, which is almost half the school population. The school had one learning support teacher and 1.5 resource teachers for Travellers to deal with the 48 kids. The number of teachers has reduced to one because it does not meet the threshold of having 33 pupils supported by RTT posts. A school up the road has 33 kids but its enrolment is twice that of Clonroche national school and, therefore, it has more learning support teachers.

One teacher must cope with 48 kids who need special attention, of whom 23 have a Traveller background, in a school with an enrolment of 110. Even the brightest kids in the class will suffer and not only the Traveller children or those on learning support. Just about every kid in the school will suffer because it is unfair and they will not be able to cope. I realise the money is not there for everything but, in special cases, the Minister surely has to examine the position. It is too unfair on the kids in these areas, which are generally underprivileged.

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