Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

My question is about the programme for Government and support for education in national schools. St. Mary's CBS primary school in Carrick-on-Suir is an excellent school with excellent staff and principal, Denis Cotter. In February of last year, the school got DEIS 1 status and was delighted. Last September, after enrolments, the school was one short. It had 132 students but it needed 133 to retain its staff. Its DEIS status allowed it to have classes with fewer than 25 students, which was wonderful for the school. Lo and behold in September, a few months after it lost its staff, the direct provision centre, which had been closed, reopened and the school now has six pupils enrolled from that centre. They are very welcome. The school educates them and does a very good job, but now the school is way over the threshold and is losing a staff member. Will the Minister for Education and Skills intervene? As a result of the intricacies of the categories and numbers, it is a numbers game and if a school does not fit into a category, it is in trouble. It is reprehensible. The school needs to retain its staff to deal with the extra pupils it got in addition to those it already had.

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