Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail)

I support what Deputy Crowe said about the schools under the patronage of minority faiths. The amalgamation of those schools in my two counties is exhausted. If one or two of the remaining schools closed, it would not be possible to bring the children to another under the patronage of their own church.

The Minister of State and the Minister may have seen a joint statement by Father John Joe Duffy and by Reverend John Deane in Donegal, which outlined their concerns about schools under the patronage of the Church of Ireland, the Presbyterian church and the Roman Catholic Church in Donegal. Doubt and concerns have set in. If the Minister of State can give reassurance to those people that their schools are not under threat, that would be a very good day's work.

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