Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not accept that. In Fethard the Holy Trinity national school has been left out. However, in the same town with the same demographics and other indicators the Minister mentioned, the secondary school has it. The feeder school with the young children does not. Therefore, that does not stand up. The five schools in Tipperary town came together. On all the indicators the Minister mentioned, unemployment, social class, single parent rate, Traveller children - you name it - we ticked all the boxes and yet the whole lot of them were totally excluded. I do not want to do down Tipperary town because it has very spirited people and great community activity. However, it has no industry and very few services. Successive Governments have forgotten about it. We clearly made a very passionate case.

How is the Minister saying this will continually be reviewed? How will the five schools in Tipperary town participate in that review? If there is no application process, how can they engage with the Department? Any Department inspector who might come in there to carry out a review would accept that the schools are doing a good job under the circumstances, but they badly need DEIS status. The same applies in Fethard where the secondary school has it and the only primary school in the town does not. Something is clearly rotten with that system. It is not functioning.

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