Chris Andrews (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

St. Patrick's Boys' National School in Ringsend is a DEIS band 1 school that serves pupils in Ringsend, Irishtown and Pearse Street. The Department of Education has just notified it that it is going to lose a teacher, which is a huge blow to the school. It has failed to meet the arbitrary 127 retention pupil rate. The staff work themselves to the bone there. The conditions they are working in are very challenging. Pupils are already educationally disadvantaged in the school. It means they are going to have to shoehorn eight classes into six and will have to split multiple classes. Parents have already told me they are going to remove their children from the school because of the split classes. There are already significant literacy and behavioural issues. We need to have common sense in relation to this. We need to show some compassion and ensure that the number crunchers in the Department are not determining the educational outcomes for children in Ringsend, Irishtown and Pearse Street. I ask that the Minister would come in. I have no doubt this issue is replicated right across the country. It is an important issue to discuss.