asked the Minister for Education why, in view of the necessity for keeping people on the land, adequate attention and equitable treatment has not been given to proposals for the building and reconstruction of small and average sized rural schools; and whether, in connection with the building of new schools, official cognisance has been taken only of what are regarded as large and important schools in urban areas.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rural Schools.
It is not a fact nor is there any foundation for any assertion that adequate attention and equitable treatment has not been given to proposals for the building and reconstruction of small and average sized rural schools.
Wherever the Department of Education is satisfied as to the need for the provision of a new school or for the reconstruction or improvement of an existing school, whether in an urban or in a rural area, everything possible is done to bring to completion with the minimum delay those arrangements which must be completed before the work of building can be commenced.
Grants sanctioned in recent years for school building projects in rural areas have been considerably greater than those sanctioned in respect of schools in urban areas.