Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this issue. He is quite correct that the closure of a school has an effect not just on the staff and students in the school but on the community, particularly a school as distinguished as Greendale community school which, as the Deputy pointed out, has served the area very well from the time it was built to a peak of more than 900 pupils. The Deputy mentioned some of the more famous staff members and past pupils but the school aims to ensure that every child reached his or her potential. Therefore, I can understand that there is a great deal of sensitivity surrounding the decision by the trustees to close the school.

When one examines the demographics of the area, one can understand how they came to this decision because there has been a steady decline in enrolments over the years. Since 1996, enrolment has declined by 50%. In less than nine years, it has fallen from 449 students to 215 students in the 2003-04 school year and the current enrolment at the primary schools in the area would indicate that the decline will continue. Unfortunately, the numbers are not there.

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