Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate that the Minister of State will take that information back in respect of St. Anne's and the flexibility for special schools I am looking for. The response that has been provided is rigid and somewhat disappointing. Again, it is a one-size-fits-all approach that will not be workable in some schools, especially rural schools which do not have the options or opportunities that schools in urban areas may have.

I want to see each child in both of the schools that I raised thriving, getting the best and equal opportunity to education. The staff and the principal, Rose-Marie, in St. Anne's do fantastic work and they are doing all that they can. They have been finding the funding to pay this cook to keep her in place. This is vital for the children and our focus should be on them.

We also had a briefing from the principals of primary schools last week. They said they were at breaking point and crisis levels of hardship. They are losing principals as they are drowning in chaos with having to be a jack of all trades. They have difficulties with losing grants, increased costs and SET allocation hours. One principal gave an example of a contract for the hot school meals programme costing €160,000, which is more than the school received for all the other costs it is covering. One school conducted a survey and found that there was no desire within the school community for hot school meals. While that surprised me, the point made was that they are firefighting every day and that they need solutions to their existing problems and bills. They need these matters addressed first in some cases. Those particular schools believe that the funding is not being allocated in the right places.

I urge the Minister to sit down with the Minister for Education to ensure that an holistic view is taken and that flexibility is provided under the hot school meals programme to allow the Department to respond to the needs of those schools, especially in complex cases. There is a job of work to be done where it has already been rolled out. We do not want children in one school setting treated in any way differently from their peers. We also do not want to continue to see a special school using its funding mechanisms to self-fund their cook, leaving their children without the vital and important therapy they need. This has to be resolved, and I have made the Minister aware of these cases.

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