Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for the opportunity to raise this issue which in the past couple of days became quite a critical matter for the parents, teachers and pupils in St. Michael's CBS in Inchicore. It is a school which has been part of that community for 70 years. As has been mentioned, it has great historical association apart from the educational aspects. The proposal to close the school at the end of this school year came as a major shock to the parents whose children attend the school and to the teachers who deliver a quality programme of learning on a daily basis.

The school has a high reputation of delivering a caring learning programme for the pupils and, given the small number of pupils, the student-teacher ratio has been very favourable. It is true the ratio is significantly better than in most other primary schools but this is the system to which children who attend the school have become used and they would, therefore, find it difficult to adapt to larger classroom experiences at this stage. The proposal to reduce the number of teachers and special needs assistants and the absence of a caretaker, for example, would make it extremely difficult to provide the same level of care and attention for the pupils which they have experienced up to now.

If the school is to close this June, parents must find places for their children in other schools immediately. I know of parents who booked their children into schools the day they were christened so that is a four year lead-in period. It is a bit too much to expect the parents to find a school with which they are entirely happy within the next eight weeks. That is a very practical issue for them. If they get places in alternative schools, for the most part it will mean they will have to travel by bus into perhaps the inner city. We are talking about children from the ages of eight to 12. Walking to school would not be an option for them because of the distance. Apart from the difficulty for children getting to school on buses, there would also be a significant cost factor for the parents involved. It is also possible that parents would have to send siblings — for example, two brothers currently going to school in Inchicore — to two different schools and that would probably add to the difficulties for them.

Inchicore is an area where much good development is taking place, which is welcome. There will be an increasing and young population there in the next couple of years. These are the issues which face the school today and within the next five years. The parents are very proud of their school and their locality. I would have liked the Minister for Education and Science to be here. I do not know whether she has visited the school and seen the work going on there or knows of the impact a reduction in staff levels would have on the quality of teaching and the morale of the school if it was to be retained with an understaffed quota relative to what it currently has.

The Christian Brothers have quite rightly stated that if the resources are not provided, the school will not be able to deliver the quality of teaching that has come to be expected and that they wish to deliver in one of its schools. It is also the case that parents passionately want their local school to be retained, not just for now but for the future.

I ask the Minister to meet the Christian Brothers, together with the board of management, to resolve this dilemma. The primary interest must be the welfare of the children attending the school and their right to a quality education, not just for now but also for the next five years, during which time many young children will become eligible to attend the school. The news of the school's closure, which is due at the end of this academic year, certainly came as a body blow to the parents when it was announced earlier this week by the Christian Brothers. The timing is not very good or encouraging for the parents. Every effort should be made to assuage their fears and ensure teaching capacity in the area is retained.

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