Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The bread and butter of our local communities is that the national schools continue to provide the excellent education they have provided. I refer to the school in Lordship, County Louth, Rampark National School, role number 18101F. The difficulty is that last September it had 170 students and that effectively means it will lose two teachers. That will have a very significant and adverse impact on the school. It would have needed to have 171 pupils last September to hold onto one of those teachers and it would have needed to have 176 pupils to hold onto both of them. The good news for the school is that it will be guaranteed to have somewhere around 173 pupils in September but because the school has to wait a year to get the additional teacher as a result of that, every single class apart from junior and senior infants will be split. First and second class are together, as are second and third class, fourth and fifth class and fifth and sixth class. That means there will be an average of 33 students in each class and the good news is there will also be an empty classroom because of the rules. That does not make sense to the parents or the teachers. The other problem is they are losing their administrative principal. I ask the Minister to consider this case. The school's appeal was turned down. Could it be looked at again, particularly in the light of the vibrant community there? They can show that this is not a dying rural community. It is a growing community just north of Dundalk. The demographics and the increase in planning applications in the area show this. I appeal to the Minister and his officials to look at this again so that people can go to school and get the full curriculum they need at that age, particularly those in fifth and sixth class, now that they are losing so much school time with the Covid-19 situation.

See this speech in context