Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is indicating that she does not agree with many of the proposals in the value-for-money report. However, the actions of her Government over the past four years would indicate a very different view. Over that time there have been systematic cuts to the pupil-teacher thresholds in small schools. One half of the number of small schools have fewer than five teachers. I refer to the very small rowing back on retention numbers which was announced recently. This is a rowing back on a very small proportion of those cuts. Does the Minister acknowledge that those cuts have had a real impact and that they will threaten the future of many schools? Will she go the whole way - as recommended by my party in our pre-budget submission - to ensure that those cuts are reversed?

I refer to the Minister's proposals on voluntary amalgamation of schools. It would seem this Government is attempting to starve schools of funding while saying to them that if they amalgamate the funding will not be a problem. The Minister is trying to starve them into submission and forcing them to amalgamate. This is in line with her policy on small schools thus far. I ask her to comment on the underlying Government policy in this regard.

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