Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I put to the Tánaiste a truly disgraceful situation that exposes the consequences of the Government's failure to properly fund our schools. Parents at Darver National School in County Louth were contacted this week and told that the school could no longer afford basic hygiene supplies because Government grants had fallen so far behind rising costs. The principal was forced to ask every child to come in with their own hand towel and roll of toilet paper. This is the Ireland the Government has created. It is an Ireland where primary schools cannot afford toilet paper, where principals are left pleading with parents for essentials that no school should ever have to ration and where families are picking up the tab for the Government's neglect. It is an absolute disgrace. Will the Government urgently look at the inadequate capitation our schools are getting? This school applied through all the channels for emergency funding and was refused. This principal did not want to have to send out this email but this is exactly the situation the Government has put this school in and, unfortunately, other schools like it.

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