Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue I am raising with the Minister of State is astonishing in its injustice. There is a situation whereby schools across the country have welcomed children from refugee and asylum-seeking families with a good heart. They are nurturing and educating those children, and have welcomed them into their schools. I want to give an example from one school in Donegal but there are many other examples I could give across the county and the country. I have one example on my desk. Sessiaghoneill National School had 152 children enrolled on 30 September, which is the date on which enrolment is reported. Within weeks, it had an extra 52 children from asylum-seeker and refugee families. That is an increase of one third in the school population. However, it has not received any additional financial support per child in the school, as would be normal. This school has nurtured, cared for and educated these children with a good heart. It estimates the situation has cost it over €30,000. It has nothing left in its bank account. Apparently, officials from the Department of Education advised the school to consider going to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul or the Red Cross.

That is a school that was looking to care for and nurture children. It has been left in considerable financial difficulty and nobody will resolve the issue for it. Everybody says they are sorry but if the kids in question are not registered on 30 September, nothing can be done. That is crazy bureaucracy. People are looking at this situation whereby the resources of the school have run dry. There are also people who are organising accommodation across the country and making a hell of a lot of money from this crisis. Some of them are very good at providing accommodation and some of them are not so good but are still making a hell of a lot of money from this crisis. This is a small school and we are leaving it €30,000 in the red while we are enriching some people across the State. People see that. They are intelligent and see that. I am sure the Minister of State will agree that this is wrong. There will be schools across the country with tremendous people who are nurturers, educators and carers, providing wonderful environments for these kids who are coming from all sorts of situations. The lives of those kids have been turned upside down and they have experienced enormous trauma. These are exactly the types of environments we want them to be in. The people who make provision for them should be compensated, at the very least. Children from the parish in question and children who have come here from another country should both attract the same level of financial assistance from the Department. This situation is wrong. It is bureaucracy.

I know the Minister of State is going to read a statement on behalf of the Department of Education which will lay out some formulaic policy. He, like me, is a public representative. I think he knows that what I am describing is absolutely wrong on every single level. I ask him to please engage with the Department officials and the Minister to find some practical solution. We cannot have a situation where schools are being impoverished while people who are speculative developers are making a huge amount of money from this crisis.

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