Brian O'Shea (Waterford, Labour)

I thank the Minister of State with special responsibility for children for attending to respond to this debate. While I have the utmost respect for him, I am very disappointed that the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, is not in the House to respond to this issue of major concern in Waterford city.

De La Salle Stephen's Street national school is an excellent school that has provided education in inner city Waterford over many years. It is located in a RAPID area. The removal of its disadvantaged status and its concessionary post would be an act of educational vandalism and an attack on the futures of the boys attending the school. Any Minister who would wilfully dramatically worsen the educational provision in such a school must consider his or her position. I sincerely hope the Minister will immediately resolve this situation and allow a highly effective principal and staff continue with their most important work unhindered by a Department which should be doing everything possible to support and encourage their work.

The Minister should visit the school and meet the parents and staff to see at first hand the damage done to the morale of the staff and parents alike. They are proud of their school and its achievements. There is an extended school community which contributes much to the sporting, cultural and social life of Waterford city. To harm seriously the kernel of such an important component of the community life of Waterford would be unforgivable.

Brother Martin, principal of De La Salle Stephen Street, has stated:

We have been told that we have lost our disadvantaged status. This will mean that the school will be crippled. Two teachers will be let go this summer and grants for vital materials and other resources will be withdrawn.

Brother Martin has further stated the school is unlikely to survive the next four to five years without disadvantaged status.

Is the Minister aware that in 46% of the households that provide pupils for this school, the main income earner is unemployed and that 45% of parents were early school leavers? Is the Minister aware that in recent years the De La Salle Order has donated €18,500 of its own funds to provide a part-time teacher in mathematics and English four days a week for those pupils who require such provision?

The school also received funding from the Waterford area partnership which helped provide music lessons for all pupils from first to sixth standard. That such a school could lose the major prop of disadvantaged status beggars belief. Is it the education policy of this Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government to punish those schools which successfully confront the ongoing education problems facing them?

There are specific questions which must be answered to clarify what exactly is happening with the disadvantaged status of De La Salle Stephen's Street national school. What is the present position regarding the designated disadvantaged status awarded to the school under the disadvantaged areas scheme in 1994? Will the Minister of State confirm that the additional permanent concessionary post allocated to the school and to which the first appointment was made in 1995 will continue to exist? Is the Minister's decision regarding disadvantaged status for the school based on a genuine mistake in the course of completing an application form relating to disadvantaged status? Will the Minister of State give a categorical assurance that at least St. Stephen's De La Salle national school will be no worse off in the coming year than in the current year in meeting the many problems the De La Salle order, the principal, staff and parents have been so successful in addressing to date.

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