Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I reiterate the call for the Minister for Education and Science to attend the House for an urgent debate on a series of educational crises that have arisen on her watch and particularly in the last 12 months. There is a proposal to close Seamount College, a second level school in Kinvara, County Galway. That school has been shown to be not only viable but also among the highest ranking schools in the country, according to various surveys of its students' examination achievements. As a former Minister for Education, the Leader will understand that this is unprecedented. The proposed closure has been sanctioned and approved by the Minister for Education and Science. As far back as 15 October 2006, the school's patrons announced that they were withdrawing from the school and that there would be no intake of students in September 2007.

Senator Kitt and myself raised this matter on the Adjournment last week but the signs in the Minister's reply were ominous. At a public meeting on Friday night, a letter from the Department was read out, which clearly indicated matters of serious import to the parents, students and staff of that school. The Minister had sanctioned and approved the appointment of a manager to the school, having examined the situation for four months during which the school did not have a board of management. The board's term of office ended on 15 October and it was not reappointed. According to the Education Act, the sanctioning of approval if satisfied that the functions of the board were not being efficiently discharged was one of the reasons the Minister has the opportunity——