Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This is my first time speaking since yesterday and despite the lowering of standards we are seeing from the Government, nothing will stop me coming in here and speaking on behalf of my community.

I want to speak to the Minister of State about funding for schools in the north inner city. Schools in the north inner city, like most schools around the country, are at the coalface of many of the issues we hear being talked about. They are dealing with issues of poverty. There are issues of generational trauma and there is a school community there who are providing a sanctuary and have done for many years. Despite all that and the day-to-day concerns schools have to ensure every single child who comes in is looked after in the incredible way they are, including to ensure every child has a place they feel comfortable in and can learn in, there is the general fear a school feels when it receives an unexpected bill in the post. That could be a €6,000 electricity bill, for example. Then the school leader has to worry about whether the lights can even be kept on.

That is a reality that has come into the public consciousness in the last couple of weeks due to a school in Killinarden, but it is a reality also facing schools in the north inner city. I have written to the Minister of State’s office asking for a meeting. I will use one school as an example, having sought permission from its principal this morning. Rutland National School is in the heart of Dublin 1, right in the north inner city. It is an amazing place full of the most decent people who do incredible work every single day. It has received more money from the Department of Social Protection for hot meals than it does from the Department of Education to run the school. Some 50% of the school’s capitation grant goes on insurance and as we know, Allianz is the only insurer in that market. The rest is used for electricity and heat. That is the capitation grant gone. Cleaning and caretaking wages are being paid from the DEIS grant, which is supposed to deliver equality for children. Its being used to pay the bills is therefore a compounding of inequality. That DEIS grant should be ring-fenced for the purpose for which it was developed. The school has a huge number of glass windows because they make for a sunny environment and allow the children to see outside, and for other reasons. The school does not have any money to pay for the cleaning of the windows.

That is the example of one school and I wrote to the Minister of State about four different ones. Schools are terrified about unexplained bills coming through the door. There are substandard facilities. St. Laurence O'Toole’s Specialist School, just off the North Strand, has been in a temporary building for the best part of 30 years. It deals with young people who are the most vulnerable. These are young people who did not have a good experience in more traditional schools. While the school staff are incredible, the building they are in demonstrates the respect the State has for them. People cannot learn in that environment and teachers cannot teach a vulnerable person in that environment, yet it is what we dealing with all the time. We are at a crisis point about whether schools are able to keep the doors open and the lights on and create an environment that is warm in every sense of the word. Budgets are being stretched to the max. Principals and school leaders are being asked to do a variety of different jobs every single day that take them away from what their first role should be, namely, ensuring the welfare of the students who attend the schools and the staff we ask to teach within them.

I would like the Minister of State to come down and listen to school leaders in the north inner city. This is a community that is often discussed. Every time I hear a Minister talk about the inner city task force, all the great work it has done and the €50-odd million that has been spent in six years, my mind goes back to those schools that are struggling so hard to meet such a demand. That is without even going into the provision of special education, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and all those other issues – this is just about the functioning of the building.

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