Brendan Griffin (Kerry South, Fine Gael)

I propose to share time with Deputies John Paul Phelan, Michael McNamara, Derek Keating, Michelle Mulherin and Jerry Buttimer. I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this topic and I commend Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan for showing a great interest in the area. The future of small rural primary schools is an issue I feel strongly about. I come from,and live in, a small rural community on the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry. As a child, I attended a small rural school where I got a great start in life. I have also spent some time teaching in small rural schools. Therefore, this topic is close to my heart.

Following last December's budgetary changes to pupil thresholds for small schools, the issue of the future of primary education in rural areas has been the focus of considerable discussion. There have been many differing views and solutions from within my own party, across all sides of this Chamber and from beyond the House. Deputy Luke 'Ming' Flanagan's Bill expresses his views and solutions to the matter.

While I welcome the sentiment and good intentions of the Bill, section 2 is unnecessary, given that Ireland ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child without reservation in 1992. There will be a constitutional referendum on children's rights later in the year. Section 3 seems a regressive step, as we need to be reasonable when discussing pupil-teacher ratios in small schools. Sections 5 and 6 are unrealistic and an affront to the one-teacher schools operating well throughout Ireland. For these reasons, I will not support the Bill.

However, I welcome all constructive contributions to the discussion because it is through constructive discussion that we can put in place a comprehensive, long-term solution to the challenges facing the future of primary education in rural areas. The solution has the benefit of the child at its heart. I have worked very hard over the past six months from within Government circles to achieve alterations to the recent changes to number thresholds. When I contributed to the debate on this subject in the Chamber in February, I called for the introduction of a streamlined appeals mechanism, which would allow schools an opportunity to counteract the retrospective aspect of the threshold changes, based on future projections. Thankfully, in co-operation with other Fine Gael and Labour Oireachtas Members, we were instrumental in securing that appeals process, which resulted in 41 of the 73 schools, initially threatened with the loss of a teacher, being able to keep all their teachers.

Unfortunately, of the 3,100 primary schools nationwide, 32 schools were not successful in holding on to all of their teachers for next year because of the budgetary changes for small schools. Two of these schools, Fybough national school and Filemore national school, are in County Kerry. While we have found a solution to the situation at Fybough, I am still working hard on finding a resolution to the situation at Filemore, which remains the only school in Kerry due to lose a teacher in September under the budget changes. In Kerry, the appeals process saved teaching posts at schools in Lispole, Ballylongford, Kilcummin, Curranes and Tralee.

In February, I called for recognition of geographic isolation to be factored into the appeals process. I gave the example at the time of Cloghane national school, which is a three-teacher Gaeltacht school, 12 km from its nearest school, which is a non-Gaeltacht school, and 20 km from its nearest Gaeltacht school in Dingle via the Conor Pass, which cannot be travelled by bus. In cases such as this, I call for reasonable exceptions to be made through the appeals process.

I also requested that four-teacher Gaeltacht schools retain a threshold advantage of five over non-Gaeltacht four-teacher schools. I continue to pursue these requests and I am fully dedicated to delivering further tangible improvements from within Government circles. In the past two weeks, the internal Fine Gael education committee has met on two occasions to discuss such matters affecting small rural schools and will meet again tomorrow.

We need to bring some balance to the policy approach to small schools. On one side of the argument, it is unsustainable to have two teachers provided for a school of only 12 children, where geographic isolation is not a significant factor. On the other hand, it is unsustainable in the long run to have only two teachers provided for a school of 55 children, which would be the case if the threshold changes were fully implemented.

In conclusion, I sincerely request that all Oireachtas Members be given the opportunity to propose, and have considered, alternative budgetary adjustments in the primary education sector to allow thresholds to remain at the 2012-13 academic year qualifying levels, which are 14, 51 and 83. By working together, in a non-confrontational and constructive way, we could find these alternative savings. I appeal to all Members of both Houses of the Oireachtas, the teaching community, officials of the Department, unions, parents and others with an interest in our children's future to come together with constructive and realistic proposals to help resolve this issue.

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