Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)

On rural schools, and particularly three-teacher schools, 49 is the current number of pupils required. In September 2012, there are four schools in my constituency that will have 51, 54 and 52 pupils respectively. That means they exceed the number. Is it not foolhardy to take a teacher out of those schools in September 2012 and have to put the teacher back in the school in 2013? That is a recipe for a mess. There is no gain in it.

Second, the school transport system is falling asunder because it has become so costly. Amalgamation is not the panacea where schools are in widely dispersed rural geographical areas. I can provide the names of schools. I have spoken privately to the Minister about Killasonna national school, Bunlahy national school and Scoil Bhríde, Glen, Edgeworthstown.

The Minister has the projections and knows these schools will not be able to fool him next September. Retrospection, an issue raised by Deputy Smith, is key. The schools should be given an opportunity to achieve the targets in September 2012. If they do so, they will then know the targets for 2013 and 2014 and will not be in a position to keen and cry. The Minister is entitled to set targets but he must give the schools concerned a chance in 2012. I have a suggestion in this regard. When people from an urban area into a rural area with an expanding population, the local school should be classified as a developing school. A submission could then be made in June that the school is developing and will have the required numbers. Now that the computer systems of the various Departments are talking to one another, officials can examine issues such as children's allowance statistics, social welfare payments and so forth. Let us take this approach because it is a fair one.

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