Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am looking at the Acting Chairman, not at the Minister of State. Tá mé ag feachaint ar an gCathaoirleach. I am speaking through the Chair. Tá mé ag déanamh mo dhícheall. The Labour Party put down this motion having spent five years in Government when FEMPI legislation went through and the Labour Party did not vote for it. Its members blamed others for voting for it. They went with gusto and added to it because they were attached to the Fine Gael big farmers and they did not know how they could pass it with the little people. My colleague, Deputy Michael Harty, was elected after a "No doctor, no village" campaign. If there is no school, there is no community. They ought to recognise that.

I hope the Minister of State, Deputy Halligan, will go away from Waterford city, out to Coolnasmear, Tooraneena, Ballymacarbry, and out to the Nire and see the small schools there and the work they do. School is vital for the education of our children but a whole community evolves around it. There is room and space and if we close these schools if they go below 19 pupils, as Deputy Danny Healy-Rae said, we will never rebuild them. We have seen them closed all over the place in rural Ireland and there has been huge loss there. Families are coming back but they have to go into the towns. That has not been good. It is really high handed of the Labour Party which used to be the party of the people going back 50 years ago, including Séan Treacy, who is still alive, Michael Ferris, Dan Spring and many people like that, but they have lost their way completely. The Labour Party has come in here only six months out of office and put down this motion to tell us all about what it wants to do with rural schools when it persecuted them, obliterated them and-----

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