Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)

We also need to look at how other jurisdictions deal with it. It has to be about education outcomes for children within those schools. It cannot be on budgetary issues alone. It must be about transport links, community links, a suitable premises and so on.

The problem is that we have already had an amalgamation here. Representatives from another school in Ardara came to me and told me that the nearest school was 50 km away in one direction and 22 km in another direction. We can only amalgamate so much, given the difficulties with transporting pupils from one place to another and so on. We need to look at how we can resolve this. I am open to looking at any solutions suggested. These people feel under attack. It is a slow attack, but it is undermining their ethos.

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