Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps that is the way it should happen but, unfortunately, that is not what is currently happening on the ground. I will give the Minister two examples. The first is in Dublin 10 where there is a proposal by a patron body to amalgamate a number of schools and close one national school. The school it is proposing to close has specially built autism units while the school with which it is proposed to amalgamate it has none. Closing a school with specially built units dealing with autism and amalgamating it with a school that does not have those units makes no sense to me, and I am sure it makes very little sense to anyone else.

The Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, will be aware of the case of North Monastery Secondary School in Cork. This is a school with an educational tradition of 203 years that is facing closure. I will come back with a supplementary and inform the Minister of the shoddy way the Edmund Rice Schools Trust has dealt with not just the students, but the parents, staff and principal of that school and the distress and hardship this has caused.

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