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

I welcome the Minister for Education. I want to explain to her what is wrong with the way the Department is applying DEIS school status in Ardee. There are four schools in Ardee. One of them, a post-primary school, has DEIS status, so every student who is over 12 or 13 and who goes there has DEIS status. They have special educational supports. There are three primary schools in the town. One, the Monastery National School, is essentially a boys' school. There is an Educate Together school, and there is Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire, which is essentially a girls' school. Two of the primary schools I mentioned, the Monastery National School and Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire, have been opened up to boys and girls from this year.

The difficulty is that two of the schools have DEIS status, so every boy in Ardee, whether going to school in primary or secondary school, has DEIS status and has those supports, but not every girl does, because there are 288 girls who attend Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire and they do not have DEIS status. Their brothers and the boys in the other schools have a hot lunch during the day. Girls are being discriminated against because they do not have DEIS status and they do not have a school meal because one is predicated on the other. I visited the school along with Councillor Dolores Minogue, who is a very active councillor in Ardee and who attended that excellent primary school, Scoil Mhuire na Trócaire. We spoke to the principal and the facts are that 60% of the girls attending the school have siblings attending a DEIS school. In first class, 73% of the students, who are essentially girls, have a brother or sister in one of the DEIS schools. In third class, 80% of pupils, and in sixth class, 76% of pupils have a sibling in a local DEIS school. From the very first day when a girl goes to school in the town of Ardee, she is discriminated against by DEIS decisions.

DEIS is supposed to be delivering equality of education but it is actually delivering inequality, gender bias and an unacceptable situation. The school staff tell me, and unfortunately, with the cost-of-living crisis, this is endemic in our society, that they know a number of children - that is girls - come to school with no lunch or an inadequate lunch. In fact, they are sourcing food locally and keep sliced pans and other food in their freezer for children in need. Something must change here, because the Minister is perpetuating inequality in our society - gender inequality. I am a grandparent with boys and girls as grandchildren, and by God I would not stand for that: that the boys get the lunches and get the DEIS and the girls get nothing. That has to change.

I know the school put in an appeal which was turned down. In the words of the Department, it was a fair and final decision. Well, it is not fair and it is not final. The children are entitled to a hot school meal or food and water in this primary school they go to. It is absolutely disgraceful and I cannot stand over this. I appreciate the Minister attending and await her response.

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