Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

It is not my intention to force the closure of any school. We have given three years for the schools located in affected areas. Some schools will not be affected by this; in fact, the majority will not be affected in one way or another. However, they need to start talking to each other about co-operation and clustering through the INTO, the patron bodies and the Irish Primary Principals Network, IPPN. There are many models, some of which are working very satisfactorily. If schools wish to talk to us about it, they should do so through their patrons in the context of how best to adapt to the changed circumstances in which we live.

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