Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

What we have here is a situation where people have been doing voluntary work, particularly in recent years when schools were finding it more and more difficult. It was boards of management that actively fundraised and did so much work in keeping their schools going. We have all been involved in helping and assisting schools in our areas in putting together money and helping them with applications for emergency works where roofs were leaking. The great work that has been done by boards of management, parents, teachers and people involved in the religious sector, which was touched on earlier tonight, has kept the doors of our schools open. The one fear I have, which has already been mentioned, is that a lot of what has been proposed can create further red tape. Red tape is the bane of everybody's life at the moment because it is not about what work one actually does but how one complies with the work one is undertaking. We have seen in other sectors that 30% to 35% of contracts can go on health and safety. While we are all very interested in health and safety, we seem to be losing the run of ourselves. I am worried about the red tape that might be involved in this and what it would mean for compliance. I have a concern that it would mean people would need to be book-keepers and accountants to comply with all the regulations and the red tape that is being put in front of them. It is no harm to put on the record the great work that has been done by boards of management and all of the people who worked and who are working voluntarily and doing their best to keep their schools open. We often have situations in rural Ireland where the boards of management are resorting to actively campaigning to bring new families into areas to ensure the schools are able to keep their doors opened. For example, in a beautiful part of County Kerry, Lauragh, they are actively campaigning to make sure they have enough students to keep their school open. We had the same situation over the years in places like the Black Valley where excellent teaching is being carried out but where it is a struggle sometimes to keep student numbers up. It is a big campaign by boards of management. Not only do they have to help in financing the school, running the budget and making sure that everything checks and balances but at the same time they must campaign and actively canvass to try to have new young families comes to the area so they will put their children into those schools and keep the schools open for the next generations. It is good to compliment those people for their voluntary efforts and for the great work they are doing.

It was touched on earlier but the contribution that has been made by the people in involved in religion, including the priests, in their communities and the excellent service they have given should never be ignored. The contribution they have made to Irish education should never be ignored, left out or forgotten about because they certainly played a big part in keeping schools open at a time when many of them might have been closed due to centralisation and other budgetary constraints. If not for the voluntary fundraising that went on when Government failed and was not able to fundraise, many of the schools would not have been able to progress, expand or modernise in the way they have. I compliment them all on their great work.

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