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

I will tell Deputy Hayes in a minute. I know the Minister will be helpful when I approach him with regard to education.

We have educational problems in Dublin South-West, like everywhere else. The Minister knows of my concern with regard to the need for the acceleration of the building programme at the Holy Rosary primary school in Ballycragh, which is a major local issue. A building programme is scheduled to be developed at Scoil Chaitlín Maude in Killinarden. The Minister knows I live in Springfield. My local primary school, St. Mark's, has more than 1,000 pupils, half of whom are from 40 different countries. As previous speakers said, this presents challenges and I hope the Minister will give them attention.

As is traditional on these occasions, I compliment my constituency colleague, Deputy Brian Hayes, on the issue he has raised. I read his contribution a few times and I was impressed by the soundbite in the final paragraph. He was dreaming when he wondered what Government Deputies would do because he knows what we will do. On the odd occasion in my first five years in the House I wanted to be on the Opposition benches where one can relax, have a little moan and one does not have to worry about much. However, I am happy on the Government benches.

Deputy Brian Hayes was kind enough to mention one of my local schools near where he lives, St. Killian's in Kingswood, and I am not afraid to discuss the school. Following the 2002 election, there was a major issue about the building programme in our area and all of us co-operated. I did not take my eye off the ball and I remained focused on what needed to be achieved. I approached the Minister for Education and Science every other day about that issue. I brought her to the estate and I showed her the difficulties. I am glad that when economic circumstances improved during the last Dáil, the Government ensured those works were completed. The school is a tremendous example of what can be achieved.

Like many other schools on the INTO list, which Deputy Brian Hayes highlighted, it faces challenges. The Minister will not be offended if I raise those issues. I am concerned about all the schools in my area and about educational disadvantage. One of the problems faced by schools such as St. Killian's in Kingswood is they are not considered disadvantaged under the Department's criteria in this regard. For example, they are not located on an island or in the Gaeltacht and they are not all-Irish schools. Such schools benefit from hugely preferential pupil-teacher ratios and additional teaching and financial resources. St. Killian's does not enjoy such advantages and this has created significant resentment among the parents and the local community. The Minister must make sure such communities and schools do not believe they are being disadvantaged. Other colleagues have outlined similar examples.

I do not have time to rattle off the details regarding every other school but staffing of mainstream classes is allocated on a previous September basis. The number of mainstream teachers for September 2008 will be based on enrolments on 30 September 2007. On that date, St. Killian's in Kingwood had 284 pupils whereas now it has 285. This creates a difficulty. I acknowledge the comments of other colleagues and the arguments that have been put forward. We are all entitled to make the case for our local schools and there will always be cases to be made but if we examine particular examples, they show up the problem and the solution.

I wish the Minister well as he wrestles with these problems. I hope the Ceann Comhairle had an enjoyable day, as it is a special day for him.

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