Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)

Members of Sinn Féin should listen closely to the words of their Minister for Education, Mr. John O'Dowd, who spoke about the rationale behind an audit he is carrying out on rural schools in Northern Ireland. He stated: "We have too many schools that do not have the capacity to give children the broad and rich educational experience they deserve". He added:

We cannot plan our future education system on the needs of school buildings. It will be based on the needs of the pupils in those schools.

Moreover, he said "A third of our 863 primary schools have fewer than 100 children enrolled" and that "difficult, sometimes unpopular, but necessary decisions" will have to be taken to reduce that number.

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