Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)

In terms of the overall budget, the savings to be made on this are minuscule. I ask the Minister to go back to the drawing board, as he has done with the DEIS schools, so as to provide some sort of equality and equity to rural Ireland.

Recently, we attended a meeting on the Gaeltacht region in west Kerry and I am sure the issues raised affect all of the western seaboard schools, the last custodians of our heritage and our language. Irish is a minority language, but it is well respected throughout Europe and we should not forget that. The comprehensive linguistic study of the use of Irish in the Gaeltacht in 2007 recognised that category A areas, the strongest category Gaeltacht areas, have only 20 years to maintain the Irish language as their first language unless proper structures are put in place. If we do not retain all the small schools in the Gaeltacht and other rural areas, we are putting the final nail in that coffin.

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