Mr. Ed Byrne:

The provision of second level schools in rural areas tends to depend on reaching a certain threshold. In other words, it is a numbers game. For instance, I teach in Swords in north County Dublin which, by and large, is an area with a rural characteristic. Many of the students I teach would come from small rural areas in north County Dublin, such as Naul or Ballyboughal.

One issue for rural schools at second level is the reduction of subject choice. This often stems from an inability in the system to share resources. Often at second level in rural areas with great distances between schools, sharing resources, such as a physics or accounting teacher, can be quite difficult. This needs to be looked at if we are going to keep a high-quality system up to leaving certificate level.

We do not have figures on the breakdown of rural DEIS programme schools. At this stage we should be looking at a system of the money following the student in the same way we have spoken about the money following the patient in the health service.

I am concerned about the cost of extracurricular activities. When there are great distances between schools, the costs involved are both financial and time. No football, hurling or basketball team can get from one school to another to engage in extracurricular activities without incurring great cost. In a rural setting, that requires the hiring of private transport. It is not simply a matter of the children going to a match with their bus fare. There is a significant cost which is often thrown back onto parents through voluntary contributions and extra contributions throughout the week. No child should be disadvantaged in their interest in extracurricular activities because of living in a rural area.

Capitation grants were cut and then frozen which has led to major problems within schools. The cut to guidance counselling has had a major effect on students, particularly in rural areas with regard to one-to-one counselling sessions. While many of these issues are not just confined to rural areas, a great deal of them are exacerbated by distance as well as time. Time is quite significant to a teacher, who might happen to live 60 km from the school in which they teach, if they are providing extracurricular support for football teams, debating or musicals. These are issues which have to be taken into account when we talk about trying to keep thriving rural communities with schools as their centres.