Seán Conlan (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. This is the only Protestant secondary school in County Monaghan and it will be very simple for parents to send their kids two or three miles across the Border to schools in Aughnacloy, Newtownhamilton or Armagh. It would be a travesty if this school were lost by reason of the Government's educational policy. The numbers are small at 247 pupils and the fees of €700 per year are very modest. It is not in the same league as the wealthy Dublin schools. Ordinary working people send their children to this school as it is the only one based on their faith in the county. I cannot stress enough that this community must not be made to feel excluded and marginalised. Monaghan Collegiate has survived for over 400 years and is a testament to the strength and determination the local Protestant community has brought to the protection of their school.

It is not acceptable to anyone who has true republican values that the school should be lost as a republic cherishes and recognises all of its citizens equally. Any republic which would choose to deny a marginal or minority community the basic right to an education in an institution sympathetic to its ethos while funding education programmes for its Catholic counterpart or people of no faith cannot call itself a true republic. We must be very conscious of what we are doing with this policy. We must ensure that we do everything possible to ensure that the school has a future. If the school went into the free scheme, it would be down to 14 teachers, lose vital subjects and parents would choose to send their kids across the Border to schools in Armagh and Tyrone. We are talking about only a stone's throw. It is six miles from Monaghan town to the Border. Many children live along the Border and it is as easy for them to get on the bus to go to Newtownhamilton or Armagh as to go into Monaghan town. It would be a travesty in this day and age if parents in the Republic had to choose to send their children to Northern Ireland to get an education.

The Government must look at this issue seriously and get a solution that is acceptable to the parents. They are very, very angry. They feel discriminated against by this policy and the issue is not going to go away. It must be sorted out and I urge the Minister to do so as quickly as possible.

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