Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate Deputy McNamara. I send my condolences to the Ó Muircheartaigh family. I commend Deputy Harkin on putting the motion forward.

The same problem is in schools throughout the country, and in work and the price of work and so on. What no one understands is that over the past number of years, costs have gone up. Unfortunately, the likes of the capitation grant, and I have been on a board of management, is like loaves and fishes. People are trying to see how they can save money to keep schools going. I remember being on a school board of management. Parents had to get together to do a big draw to make sure the school kept going. It costs the same to heat a school, as it has different rooms, for 50 pupils as for 80 pupils for the simple reason that the separate rooms are still needed for the different number of children. Unfortunately, principals are under ferocious pressure in national schools to try to make sure that schools are kept going. I know that solar panels and new things are coming on stream, which are welcome. I am not putting down the likes of that, but inflation and the costs involved have put real pressure on smaller schools. They need help.

On top of that, I look at the way SNAs are being given to schools at present. Schools could get half an SNA position. It was done in a fairer way at one time than the way it is being done now. We need to make sure that children with disabilities get every opportunity to be brought into mainstream education. They deserve the same as anybody else.

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