Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. It is disturbing and he has accurately outlined the backdrop to it.

A whole-school evaluation of the school in Faughart was conducted in March this year and the report was published in May on the Department's website. As the Deputy indicated, the report found a number of significant problems with the capacity of the school to deliver on its mission and made a number of strong recommendations, including that the board of management, in consultation with the staff, the wider community and the patron, formulate, implement and monitor a strategic plan for the operation and development of the school in order that its mission statement could be implemented satisfactorily. The report stated the oversight role of the board of management needed to be strengthened significantly and that within the school leadership for learning should be greatly developed and, to that end, leadership and coaching supports should be accessed by the principal.

Following the completion of the inspection, senior officials of my Department held a meeting with the school management and the patron of the school on the issues identified during the inspection and the need to implement the recommendations made in the report. Responsibility for implementing recommendations rests, in the first instance, with the management and patron of a school. As section 15 of the Education Act makes clear, it is the duty of the board of a school to manage the school on behalf of its patron and for the benefit of the students and their parents. The patron then began the process of dissolving the board of the school and appointing a single manager to manage the school on the patron’s behalf. However, the board resigned and a single manager was appointed by the patron in June 2017 to manage the school. The manager is taking on the responsibility, acting on behalf of the school’s patron, to take the steps necessary to address the issues identified. I have outlined in the written reply the normal support provided to assist in that work, including follow-up by the Department and access to support services.

As the Deputy outlined, despite having an enrolment of 55 pupils this time last year which would warrant a staffing complement of a principal and two mainstream classroom teachers, no students are now attending the school as their parents have opted not to send them to the school. My Department is concerned about this. It is not its policy to see schools such as this close, but, ultimately, these decisions do not rest with it. The decisions and the authority to make them rest with the patron and the school community, but the Department is working to try to find a solution. As recently as today, officials had a meeting with the school authorities and the patron. We will continue to engage with the school management and the patron to address the matter. It is our desire to achieve a solution, whereby parents will have the confidence to send their children back to the school. I am informed that the school manager is taking this task seriously and I hope that, with the support of the wider community, we can find a solution that will protect the continuing role of the school which has a proud tradition dating back many years. It is a difficult issue, but we are working vigorously with local interests to find a solution and open to continuing that work.

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