Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)

A number of people from County Clare are in the Visitors Gallery and AV room. I pay tribute to them because they travelled to Dublin to show concern about the future of education. I assure them that every single Deputy on the Government benches shares their concern. In fairness and notwithstanding the play-acting we have witnessed this evening, every Deputy on the Opposition benches also shares that concern. Our visitors from east County Clare will be familiar with the following place names: Cloonusker, Coolin Bridge and Cappaghabaun. These are three townlands in Scariff, my parish, each of which had a national school until the 1970s when they were closed by a Fianna Fáil Minister for Education - he may even have been from County Clare - and replaced by one school in Scariff. I was in the first junior infants class in the new school. Each and every child from the three townlands I mentioned continued to receive an education after the schools amalgamated and every teacher in the three schools in question continued to teach in a very good school which I had the privilege to attend after the amalgamation took place. Similarly, schools in Slieve Anore, Corrakyle, Knockbeha, Gurtavaha and Dooglaun were closed and amalgamated in Flagmount national school. A similar merger occurred when schools in Killaloe, Tulla, Clonlara and Kilkishen amalgamated. Despite these mergers, our children continued to receive an education.

What the Government is proposing is much more modest than the closure of such a large number of schools. It is simply increasing the number of pupils required to receive a second teacher post from 12 this year to 14 in 2013, 17 in 2014 and 20 in 2015. The number of pupils required to receive a third teaching post will increase from 49 this year to 51 next year, 54 in 2014 and 56 in 2015, while the number of pupils required for a fourth teaching post will increase from 81 to 83 in 2013, 85 in 2014 and 86 in 2015. This is a modest step which, notwithstanding the histrionics we have seen tonight, does not threaten the fabric of rural Ireland or the future of GAA clubs in rural areas. That threat comes from the economic morass in which we find ourselves. I do not propose to comment on or play politics with that issue, however.

I will reiterate a comment made by the Minister last night. This debate provided him, as it provides me, with an opportunity to state categorically that this measure is not about closing schools. As the Minister acknowledged, schools play an important part in our communities, particularly in rural areas. He has been clear that the measure involves a simple and minor adjustment to pupil-teacher ratios and that small schools will continue to receive preferential ratios - the general pupil-teacher ration is 28:1. It is open to schools which find they are one, two or three pupils below the threshold to negotiate an amalgamation. This issue is no more about rural versus urban Ireland than it is about east versus west Clare.

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