Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister of State is giving a reply on behalf of the Minister for Education but the reply just outlines the process, which I am aware of. The school appealed the decision and was turned down. That is what I am raising here. The appeal the school made in October was turned down last week as a result of the school being one pupil short despite it being known that there are three pupils waiting to come in. That is why I am bringing this up here. I am asking the Minister to go back to the Department, to discuss this with her officials and to relent on the decision to refuse the appeal. This young teacher is asking what she is going to do now. She is actually considering emigrating. We are going to lose another teacher. We are already some 1,000 teachers short in the primary school sector. We do not want to lose any more. It is a very harsh decision when we know there are pupils willing to come into the school once they are able. It is not that they are being kept at home.

I also want to raise my concern for students awaiting visas to get PPS numbers to enrol in schools. These children are attending from second class to sixth class so they are aged somewhere between seven and 12 or 13. These children are out of school, which is concerning. That is a wider issue that we need to address. No child, no matter what country they come here from, should be out of school for months on end.

The parents are working, living and contributing to our economy in Ireland. Will the Minister of State look at this case again?

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