Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The test should never be the only criteria used for allocating resources. It would be unfair as it would put undue pressure on children and on schools to perform or even to underperform to gain the resources. It would obviously feed in to our knowledge. Much of the evidence from the report to which the Deputy refers pointed to poor results on the basis of having no books at home and parents not reading to their children. We can easily identify that there is more to literacy levels in disadvantaged schools than just the relationship between the teacher and the child. That is why I would be anxious not to use one criterion, just like the medical card is not used on its own for access to university.

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