John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the matters raised already by other Deputies and the response given by the Minister, I accept there has been a considerable improvement all round. The special classes are really exceptional when they get up and running and so on. What happens when a school is not happy and requires further supports or further SNAs, and school representatives come to Members of the House to raise the issue directly with the Minister and, of course, the decision on that is outsourced?

We can learn from our mistakes, if you like, by looking at the reasons schools ask for extra support and looking at the response from the appropriate agency or, indeed, Department that refuses to grant it. When questions are asked here, the replies Deputies get are usually just a Department blurb. I would like to see much more than that happen.

I refer the Minister to School of the Holy Spirit in County Kilkenny, which asked for support and was refused, as have many other schools. Schools are not just asking for the sake of asking; they are asking for a reason. They believe the supports are needed. Some other method of response in terms of the allocations has to be put in place. Certainly, some other method of appeal has to be put in place.

Likewise, we must look at the DEIS schools. I refer to Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál and St. Joseph's National School in County Carlow. The young girls attending school are not under the DEIS system and the boys are. Who reached that decision when they are all on the same campus? We must question the decisions that are being made. We have to seek the answers from the Department or whoever is making those decisions as to why that is the case. No one in County Carlow can fathom why the decision was made to make one school a DEIS school and not say that the other one is the same. The chairman of the board of management contacted me on that case. Quite frankly, the response back from the Department is not good enough. More questions are being asked as to why the appeals are not fair-handed and why the original decisions, in fact, are not fair-handed. There is a glaring example of that in Scoil Mhuire Gan Smál and St. Joseph's National School. I ask the Minister to maybe explain that process to us and also explain what she is going to do about that particular case. It is essential for me as a representative for that constituency to understand why that has happened. I cannot understand it.

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