Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister to review the decision on Gaelscoil Phádraig. It is in a disadvantaged area which nobody would doubt. The children in the school suffer disadvantage and have been shafted for 20 years. Even schools with DEIS status are not being resourced properly. The Holy Family school in Dunedin Park in Monkstown Farm applied for permission to undertake a summer works programme to put a fire alarm system in place and carry out emergency heating works. It was also looking to replace a water tank which was 50 years old, almost certainly unsafe and situated over a boiler. It received half of the money it needed to do all of these things; therefore, it cannot do them. It received half of the money it needed for the cheapest quote it could get. If even schools with DEIS status do not receive the resources they need, we have a problem. The school was also refused extra teachers to improve the pupil-teacher ratio. Will the Minister consider the Holy Family school in Dunedin Park and Gaelscoil Phádraig in Loughlinstown because they are in seriously disadvantaged areas and have been given a very raw deal on a number of fronts?

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