James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for affording me time to discuss an urgent matter, namely, the need for the Minister for Education and Skills to review a decision that has led to the suppression of the posts of the resource teacher for Travellers, RTT, and the rural co-ordinator for disadvantage at St. Mary's national school in Edgeworthstown, County Longford. The loss of these posts is detrimental to the continued successful provision of education to the children of Edgeworthstown and leaves the most vulnerable children in the school without essential supports. Furthermore, given the population explosion in Edgeworthstown - an increase of 68.4% since the 2006 census - there is urgent need for an increase in the funding provision for the built environment at the school.

St. Mary's is developing rapidly and is designated as DEIS rural. The school is the base for a rural co-ordinator for disadvantage covering three schools. The current enrolment at the school is 464 pupils, a marked increase from the 203 who were enrolled in 2005 when the service under DEIS was allocated.

According to budget 2011, rural co-ordinator for disadvantage posts were to be suppressed from September 2011. This would be untenable for St. Mary's national school, as making the most vulnerable children suffer would be to the detriment of the school and the community. Its rural co-ordinator visits homes, organises homework clubs, runs parenting courses in conjunction with the HSE, provides English language courses for parents who are not fluent and organises a range of afterschool activities, including drama, French, sport and crafts. The co-ordinator is also responsible for a range of in-school activities.

With an increased number of children from the Traveller community in the school, the projected suppression of the RTT post from 1 September by the Department will be a considerable blow to the school. It will have a detrimental impact not only on the children concerned, but on learning supports for other pupils. The number of children from the Traveller community who attend the school exceeds the 33 pupils required to retain such a post.

Edgeworthstown has recently been reallocated into CLÁR, a status it did not have at the allocation of DEIS. Primary schools serving rural areas, including towns with a population below 1,500 people, are included in the rural strand of DEIS. St. Mary's is no longer in this category, given the population increase in Edgeworthstown. However, I am conscious of the fact that an evaluation is being prepared for the next cycle of DEIS.

It is imperative that St. Mary's be immediately redesignated from DEIS rural to DEIS urban and that the post of rural co-ordinator is recategorised as home school community liaison. The school meets the recommended numbers for this post, as it is now the largest school in County Longford and in the Ardagh and Clonmacnoise diocese. St. Mary's has projected further enrolment growth and hopes to achieve a 20 classroom school on the site.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time is up.

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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St. Mary's is urgently in need of a permanent structure to encompass 20 classrooms. Currently, it only has five classrooms in a permanent structure, two of which are in a general purpose room and a computer room. This limits both ICT education and physical education. All other classes and support teachers, totalling 27, are in prefab accommodation, which is unacceptable.

I praise the principal, Ms Helen O'Gorman, and the staff, who give 100%-----

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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The Deputy's time is up. Will he resume his seat, please?

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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-----to making the school a vibrant entity. It is up to the Department of Education and Skills to assist them in every way possible.

Seán Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, Ceann Comhairle)
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Do you realise there is a time limit on this debate? You are taking time from your colleagues. When I say "four minutes", I mean "four minutes".

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I thank Deputy Bannon for raising this issue, as it gives those of us on the Government benches an opportunity to clarify the position. The Minister, Deputy Quinn, and the Minister of State, Deputy Sherlock, are attending the IVEA conference in Cork today and the Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, is out of the country on Government business. They apologise for not being present and I have been asked to respond on their behalf.

The decision to withdraw RTTs and rural co-ordinator posts was taken by the previous Government as part of the last budget. The requirement to make expenditure savings and to ensure that staffing numbers remain within the public service employment control framework prevent us as an incoming Government from revisiting the decision.

The programme for Government sets out that education will be a priority for the Government and that we will endeavour to protect and enhance the educational experience of children, young people and students. To this end, we are committing, during the tenure of the Government, to improving the co-ordination and integration of the delivery of services to the Traveller community across all Departments using available resources more effectively to deliver upon the fundamental principle of inclusion.

The decision to dispense with Traveller-specific resource teaching posts is broadly in keeping with the Traveller education strategy, which recommends that an integrated, collaborative and in-class learning support structure should be adopted for all children, including Travellers, with an identified educational need. The strategy aims to enhance access, attendance, participation and engagement for Travellers and is underpinned by the principles of inclusion and mainstreaming with an emphasis on equality and diversity.

Traveller pupils who are eligible for learning support teaching from this school now receive the tuition through the existing learning support provision therein. The Government recognises that withdrawing all RTT posts will place a strain on existing learning support services in schools. In recognition of this, limited alleviation measures have been provided to assist some schools that have high numbers and concentrations of Traveller pupils and who were previously supported by RTTs. The school in question had only 16 pupils of a total population of 437 in 2011 who were supported by an RTT post. By comparison with the number in other schools, this number was relatively small and accordingly this school did not qualify for alleviation measures available for schools losing RTT posts. These were allocated to the schools which had the highest numbers and percentages of pupils supported by RTTs.

I understand that, for the current school year, St. Mary's national school has four full-time and one shared learning support-resource teaching posts to support students. Traveller pupils who require additional learning support or resource teaching should be provided with such support through these means.

With regard to the position on the rural co-ordinator service, I wish to clarify the school was selected to participate in the rural element of DEIS, Delivering Equality of Opportunities in Schools, the action plan for educational inclusion. The school was included in a rural cluster with two other rural DEIS schools and had, until this year, the services of a rural co-ordinator. The decision to remove the rural co-ordinator service from 331 rural DEIS primary schools was a measure taken by the last Government as part of a measure to secure some €24 million in savings in the 2011-12 school year under the national recovery plan. The service was discontinued with effect from 31 August 2011. Requirements to make expenditure savings and to ensure staffing numbers remain within the public service employment control framework prevent us from re-visiting this decision.

James Bannon (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I hope the Minister will take on board my concerns and commit to restoring essential staff at St Mary's and providing urgently needed improvements to the built environment by way of urgently needed permanent accommodation.

With regard to the designation of St. Mary's as a rural rather than urban school, the classification of schools was supposed to be reviewed in 2009. This did not happen. When will it happen?

St. Mary's has pupils from 15 different nationalities and provides value for money for children under its care. Conscious that all children have only one childhood, I draw attention to the need for financial support from the Department to carry out necessary upgrading and maintain teacher numbers. It is vital that funding be provided. Perhaps the Minister will make a commitment in this regard. I dispute his figures because I was speaking to the principal, Helen O'Gorman, this morning.

Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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The Deputy, as a Member on the Government side, understands the pressure the Government is under in delivering all public services. I will pass on his views to the Minister for Education and Skills. He should know the school is included in the DEIS programme and continues to receive very significant enhanced supports.

A schools building project to provide a new school on the existing site in Edgeworthstown is at an advanced stage of architectural planning. An application for planning permission has been received and a decision of the local authority is expected shortly. This project will deliver a new 20-classroom primary school plus a special needs unit on the existing school site. All in all, there is a good service being delivered to the school. I heard what the Deputy said and will bring his views to the attention of the Minister for Education and Skills. The Deputy will, of course, realise that we must ensure we live within our means, and that all areas of public expenditure are under very tight pressure.