Ruairí Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)

I am glad of the opportunity to bring up this issue. It is a very worrying one. It was brought up earlier by Deputy Doherty. It relates to the ongoing school funding crisis in Darver National School. The easiest way to put this on the record is to read out an email a number of parents got the other day:

Dear parents,

I am writing to share an important update regarding the financial situation currently affecting our school.

Over the past several years, government grants have not increased sufficiently in line with rising costs. Despite making every effort to manage resources and reduce spending in ways that do not impact pupils, we have now reached a point where we can no longer cover the costs of certain essential hygiene items. We have worked hard to protect classrooms, teaching and learning from the impact of these financial pressures.

However, we have now reached a point where we are unable to continue covering the cost of certain basic consumable items used daily by pupils. As a result, beginning tomorrow, we kindly ask that each child bring:

- small personal hand towel

- a roll of toilet tissue

This is not a request we ever wished to make and it reflects the very real challenges that ongoing funding shortfalls have created for schools like ours. Please know that we would not be asking for your support unless it was absolutely necessary.

We hope this will be a temporary measure as we continue to advocate for improved financial support and explore all possible avenues to ease the financial burden on the school.

Thank you for your understanding, patient and continued support as we navigate these challenging circumstances.

Kind regards,

The Principal of Darver National School

We are talking about a small rural school in County Louth with 71 pupils and six teachers. We are also talking about an old building. It dates back to around 1940. Obviously, that creates its own maintenance issues. The heating system is outdated - this is a big issue - and does not provide sufficient heat and needs to be replaced. There has been an application for the summer works scheme, which could probably deal with a significant amount of the costs. Government grants have consistently not covered the cost of this school for the past three years. That is my understanding. Obviously, bills have steadily increased during that period. Electricity costs increased by 200% last year. The school is with the OGP so it cannot get a cheaper deal than that. It has other facilities, such as a large outside area, which costs money to maintain with grass-cutting, and the school does not get any additional funding to do that. All the printing and photocopying costs are covered by parent contributions. The school had to replace the door intercom system. Again, that was paid for by parents' association fundraising. They are dealing with and engaging with the financial services support unit and all they have to, but it is a poor reflection when parents have to receive such a letter. I have no doubt that the principal did this as an absolute last resort. It is something we need to address as soon as possible.

I will also put on the record what a parent wrote to me. I have received multiple such emails. I do not think that would be any shock to anybody. The email states:

I am contacting you and your office in relation to an email sent by one of our local schools.

The parents are being advised that the school will no longer support the funding of basic hygiene products for pupils and, from tomorrow, we must send our children into school with a roll of toilet paper and a hand towel each.

As a parent, I am appalled that these are the conditions that children are being asked to deal with in a school day. For the government to not be able to provide funding for basic hygiene to pupils shows an absolute lack of duty of care.

Questions must be asked. What is happening to funding for smaller schools in our county and in the State?

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