Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Ó thaobh na scoileanna sa Ghaeltacht de, tá tacaíocht ar leith tugtha do na scoileanna sin. Particular resources are given to those schools such as greater funding, additional teaching hours, continuing professional development, CPD, and advisory supports from the inspectorate and all of that. There is a particular emphasis being placed on those schools. I hear what the Cathaoirleach is saying about the need to do even more. By way of an example of what we are doing, the Gaeltacht schools can often be very small in size and therefore we are currently running a pilot around small schools and how best to support them. There will be great learning from that. We are looking at things such as potential opportunities within a cluster of small schools in an area to share personnel of an bord bainistíochta or something like that. There is a whole raft of documentation that schools have to do as well with policies on this, that and everything else. We are looking at the sharing of things such as one school doing one policy and another doing another and that kind of thing. In other words, we are looking at what way we can streamline it and make it less challenging for schools to survive, if you like, through getting personnel to be on boards of management and maybe initiatives they might run in the area to attract more students into the school.

In addition to the existing supports we have, we are also running out this pilot and we are determined to ensure the maximum supports will be given because it is the cradle of the language.

The Cathaoirleach made the point that the 400-pupil threshold is too high. The threshold for an English-medium school is between 600 and 1,000 pupils, and for the Gaelcholáistí that has been reduced to 400. I hear what the Cathaoirleach is saying-----