Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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588. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to outline her willingness to continue her support for smaller urban or rural schools with a denominational ethos; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26411/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My recent announcement of two new policy measures to better support the sustainability of small schools clearly shows my support for the smaller schools. The first measure provides for improved teacher retention thresholds to be introduced for some small schools commencing in the next school year. It also provides for an improved teacher appointment threshold for isolated one-teacher schools. These are schools that are more than 8 km distant from the next nearest school of the same type of patronage and language of instruction. The second measure is the development of a voluntary amalgamation protocol for the very smallest schools that have reducing enrolments and are located within an 8 km distance of a school of similar patronage and language of instruction. Both these measures are intended to provide rural communities with security about the future of their small schools.