Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I am grateful to say a few words on this important motion and compliment Deputy O'Sullivan and her party colleagues on giving us the opportunity. In addition to Deputy O'Sullivan, I acknowledge the other experts present in the House such as Deputies Enright and Finian McGrath, whom I have known as a great teacher for a long time, as well as Deputy Crowe.

It is important to support what the Minister is trying to achieve. I am happy to acknowledge the presence of the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, who is a regular visitor to Dublin South-West and Tallaght in particular. He visited St. Anne's national school in Tallaght last week and saw for himself the positive work being done in a disadvantaged area. I am sure he gave a very good report to the Minister. He met a number of young people from different schools in Fettercairn, Killinarden and Brookfield. It is important to remain positive about what is being achieved in our schools.

I support the Minister's efforts to reduce class sizes because that is what we should be doing. We should give every possible opportunity to young people to progress. My generation perceived schools as tough, yet I did well out of my school days and childhood. Some Deputies might disagree. I was educated by the nuns in Clarendon Street and the Christian Brothers in Synge Street and Drimnagh Castle. I look back on my school days as a very positive experience and it is important that people do so.

St. Mark's junior and senior schools in Springfield, Tallaght, have been operating since 1973 and have provided a tremendous service to young people in the catchment area over that period. The junior school predicts that in the next year academic year it will have between 500 and 530 pupils, 200 of whom will be non-nationals. The senior school predicts it will have 400 pupils, 140 of whom will be non-national. The schools point out that the majority of their international students do not speak English as their first language. Children from 32 different countries now attend my local schools and hail from Angola, Albania, Bulgaria, Bangladesh, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cameroon, China, Congo, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Ethiopia, England, India, Ireland, the Ivory Coast, Jordan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, the Philippines, Russia, Romania, Somalia, South Africa, Ukraine, Yugoslavia and Vietnam.

This clearly represents a major challenge for my local schools. The principals tell me that the majority of international students live in private rented accommodation and their families are fully reliant on social welfare. This puts considerable strain on school finances and the schools do not have a home-school-community liaison teacher. They are trying to deal with the avalanche of day to day social, emotional and psychological challenges that accompany relocated people. No interpreters are available to the schools and the cost of employing one is beyond their means. They struggle to maintain educational standards and standardised tests show just how poorly many of the children perform when they seek to understand the finer points of the English language. If it were up to any of us, we would still be speaking Irish. However, that is another day's debate.

The Department of Education and Science must take account of the challenges presented by non-national pupils in schools such as St. Mark's in Springfield. The schools request that English language support be provided for more than two years. Some of the children entering the senior school in fourth class have never been to school before and supports cannot deal with their needs within two years. Three teachers in the junior school are attempting to support the language needs of 170 international pupils, which represents a ratio of 56 pupils to each teacher. Three teachers in the senior school are attempting to support the language needs of 110 non-national children. The ratio of resource teachers to pupils in respect of children from the Traveller community is 14:1, although I do not mean this as an unfair comparison. Many people are beginning to wonder about the Department's approach in this regard.

Some 25% of the pupil population in Springfield are non-nationals. It is very difficult for the schools to have a long-term plan for the children because they must apply for the resources year on year. The average class size in the two schools is 30 pupils per teacher, with approximately ten non-national children per class who do not speak English as a primary language.

I do not want to distract from the other points on the motion, but it is important for me to make this particular case. I have visited schools in my constituency in Tallaght, Firhouse, Greenhills, Templeogue and Brittas and seen that it is becoming more of a challenge. We must all as politicians support our local schools because they provide a tremendously valuable service. They look after our young people in a very challenging world. Young people throughout Ireland are being very well educated and it is important that the Department looks at what is being done as well as the challenges presented by the non-national community. I hope the Minister of State takes account of what I have said and passes it on to the Minister.

The Minister of State witnessed for himself the positive work that is being done in Tallaght. It was an amazing time. Anybody familiar with the schools in their constituencies will agree. We must take account of the Minister's amendment. She is acknowledging the need for the Government to continue to provide significant additional resources. Other people have made political points so there is no need for me to do so.

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