Tom Morrissey (Progressive Democrats)

I support Senator Ryan's call for the Minister for Education and Science to give whatever support is required to ensure that St. Michael's CBS, Inchicore, is retained as a school in that severely disadvantaged area. In so doing, I wish to pay tribute to the Christian Brothers and to the staff who taught in that severely disadvantaged area for the past 70 years. It would be a pity to see that area without a school. Members have seen villages and other areas without post offices and banks and it would be a shame if the recently refurbished St. Michael's estate was now to be without a major piece of social infrastructure in the form of a local school. A school in such an area could not and cannot survive without a working principal. If that is the difference between keeping this school going and closing it, every effort must be made to ensure it is retained in that area.