John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for the response. My understanding from the school is that the FSSU has got involved a second time. Part of its advice to the school was that it reach out to the community. I want to let the FSSU know, as a TD from the area, that it really needs to grasp the breadth and intensity of the challenges that face the school in this area. It is not possible for this school to reach out to the community for assistance. The ancillary grant in 2023 and 2024 amounted to €8,268, but the school's actual spend was €28,000. They have squeezed the pips out of the resources that they have available to them. In an area of deep deprivation, as the Minister of State understands, the school provides the only opportunity many of the pupils in the school have to experience extracurricular activities. It has had to cut a number of those back, whether it be the panto at Christmas or tours, because they cannot afford to pay for buses. They have had to curtail many of these things. The area is ageing and has no new builds. New builds are due on stream, which will bolster the numbers, but in an old building, whether there are 50 or 500 pupils, the costs of running it are actually the same. I will finish on this and look forward to the Minister of State's response.

I welcome the speedy intervention by the Minister and the Department this morning. I welcome their commitment to addressing the immediate needs, in other words, to advance the capitation grant that was due in June this year by the end of this week. That is fantastic news. The school needs a structured approach from the Department and the financial support services unit within the Department. The school needs its hand held and real money in a structured way, not a stop-gap way, to allow it to plan and deliver what all the teachers, special needs assistants, and the entire school community, including parents, grandparents, teachers and management alike, want, which is a top-class education, which is what they get, and to ensure that it is not undermined in any shape or form. Threats about the future of the school because of its financial viability do nobody any justice and do not help anybody trying to provide education for our children.

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