Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

We were asking if children who entered school in those years finished school, whether they reached and completed junior certificate and then leaving certificate. The information I gave today about schools that were in disadvantage schemes retaining their teaching posts, remaining part of the home-school-community liaison scheme and not losing funding should offer comfort to all schools. The fact that 20% of the rural schools in the scheme are in Mayo identifies the way the schemes target the most disadvantaged pupils. No one in the House would say we should spread the money so thinly that it would not reach the intended targets.

See this speech in context