Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I am not trying to pull at people's heartstrings, rather I am trying to show the reality for the children in Walkinstown who are facing the loss of their teacher when I tell the House that I received a few emotional e-mails from them. Mika has told me that the school does not have the 230 students it had expected to have and that the fifth and sixth classes will be squished - a great word kids use - into one classroom. She says not everyone could manage to go to a private school or one that is further away from their area and that accommodation prices are getting higher and higher in the area. She says they could not blame the parents if they have to or want to move. She says one of their teachers will lose her job and that their education could be affected.

I received another e-mail from Gráinne. She says that, as a pupil with dyslexia, it will be hard for her to work with more students in her classroom and that her teacher will not be able to help her and the other sixth class girls as much. She says they will have confirmations this year and that it will be even harder for the teacher because she will have fifth and sixth class students in one small room. She says her school has very small classrooms which can barely fit the 23 girls in them and wonders what it will be like to have 32 girls in one small room.

People of my vintage look at photographs and remember the time when we were children. A teacher would have been in a sea of children because in the 1960s classes could had up to 50 children. Thank God, we have moved on since. However, here is a case in which the class size will increase from 23 to 28, 30 and 32 students when four classes become three. If the number of teachers is reduced from four to three, it will maximise the number of students in the classrooms.

On top of this, we have to think of the ages of the girls. They play camogie and musical instruments and attend dance classes and so on after school. They bring their gear with them and it is left in the classroom. Other Deputies have raised the health and safety issues, which are a concern. My concern is that three Deputies handed a letter to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, last week, appealing to him to think about this situation. I am sure it does not mean a thing to him because he is up to his eyeballs in dealing with the threatened ASTI strike. Furthermore, there is an official in Athlone who is ticking a box that the school has applied on exceptional accommodation needs grounds but that it does not fulfil the criteria and that, therefore, the teacher has to go. Ms O'Brien will have to leave the school on Friday and the girls are distraught, as are their parents. The girls should be heading into the mid-term break with a sense of glee and looking forward to Hallowe'en. Instead, they are massively disappointed.

I have a map to show to the House that was given to me by the principal. It depicts part of Dublin South-Central and the pink dots represent DEIS schools. The large black dot represents the Assumption girls' school. We can see that the area is full of DEIS schools, rightly so, because it is considered to be economically disadvantaged. As the Assumption girls' school does not have DEIS status, it always under scores in the pupil-teacher ratio. It is unfair that the officials in Athlone do not take the opportunity to send a cigire which is what we used to call them into the school to examine the space in which the children have to study and learn and the teachers have to work. This needs to be done with a sense of urgency. Can it be done and how can we do more to ensure it will be done? Anyone who visits the classrooms and sees the children and their teachers packed into them, with their gear, will realise this is not just about pleading for an extra teacher but a genuine health and safety issue. More importantly, the children deserve, as does everyone, including those mentioned by Mika who can afford to go to a private or another school, equal opportunity in education, but they are not getting it because someone in Athlone ticked the wrong box. Will there be an instruction to those in Athlone that someone should visit the school and listen to the case being made, rather than treating this as bits of paper on which to tick boxes?

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