Vol. 283 No. 11
asked the Minister for Education if he is aware of the objection of parents to the proposed closure of Letterleague national school, County Donegal which is a two-teacher school with over 50 pupils; and, if so, if he will ensure that this school is kept open.
11.
asked the Minister for Education his proposals for future primary school facilities in respect of the Letterleague school area, Letterkenny, County Donegal.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 11 together.
My Department proposed to the manager the amalgamation of Letterleague school with the new school at Glenswilly as being in the best educational interests of the pupils. The manager and the majority of the parents agreed to this proposal and the amalgamation came into effect on 1st July.
Is the Minister aware that the parents in this area, who had come to know of the proposed closure some months ago, had meetings with the manager and subsequently with an inspector of the Minister's Department, and that arising from those meetings it was expected and indeed it was promised that they would be given the ultimate decision of the Department before anything was done, and is he aware that this did not happen? Is he aware that they were ultimately made aware of the closure by the bus driver who was doing a test run on the 30th June, and he told the teacher of the school that it was closing the following day and that he would be around to collect the children and take them to Glenswilly?
I understand that only about one-third of the parents who attended the meeting in question were opposed to the amalgamation.
Is the Minister aware there are three families whose children travel on the bus since it has been provided, and three families out of the entire area is far from being a third of the total? Might I make this plea to the Minister, as I have already done to his Department, that during the period of the holidays which have just commenced there should be a reappraisal of the decision to close Letterleague National School? There are very good reasons. Glenswilly cannot take all the pupils, who now number 61, in Letterleague. Double transport has been provided, one bus going to the Drumkeen school and another going to the Glenswilly school. In the area there is a growing population, evident from the number of new houses being built on the fringe of Letterkenny, which is bursting at the seams. I can see a school being built in Letterleague in order to accommodate——
This is a very long question.
——not only the 61 pupils but also many more who will be coming forward in the very near future, and I think it was a very foolish and unwise decision to have taken.
In view of the fact that the case has been brought to my attention, I will have another word with the inspector, but I do not want anything I have promised in this regard to be taken as automatically guaranteeing the reopening of the school.
May I say to the Minister—and I have advised the parents in this matter as well in regard to the strike which took place over the last five days of the school year—that since the holidays have come up, since there is such controversy about this matter and since it has been dealt with rather awkwardly, to say the least of it—there should be time for a full reappraisal, and I would ask the Minister to do that——
We must pass on to another question.
