asked the Minister for Education if he is aware of the particular urgency of the situation regarding the provision of a new school to cater for the needs of the students attending Scoil Chiaráin Special School, Glasnevin, Dublin; and if he will guarantee a 100 per cent grant in respect of the school in question.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Dublin School.
24.
I am aware of the need for the provision of a new school to cater for the children attending Scoil Chiaráin Special School, Glasnevin, Dublin, and arrangements for the provision of a new school building are at an advanced stage. As the new school, like the present Scoil Chiaráin, will be within the primary education system, the State grant towards the cost of the building and its equipment, though reasonably substantial, must be supplemented by a contribution to be provided by or on behalf of the trustees of the school.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary accept that normally the trustees of a school represent the parish and the parents of the parish in which the school is being built?
Normally, in the case of what one might describe as ordinary national schools, this is the case; but in the case of a special school usually it is catering for children from a number of parishes and other arrangements are made for raising a local contribution from a wider area.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary indicate how, in the case of Scoil Chiaráin, which caters for a very wide catchment area—it is really a regional school for children who cannot normally benefit from primary schools—he proposes that the criteria attaching to local contributions should obtain?
It is not for me to say specifically how the money should be raised. That is a matter basically for voluntary agencies acting in association with the trustees of the school. In the case of all special schools a voluntary organisation interested in the education of children with these disabilities raises money in the different parishes. There are in existence means whereby money is raised in various parishes throughout Dublin and used in parishes where the need is great.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not accept that it is a little irresponsible of him to be hiving off his responsibility towards those children to a voluntary organisation?
No. There is nothing exceptional about the attitude of the Department in this case. The Department are adopting the same attitude here as they adopt in the case of any special school anywhere. We have a mixed system of education with the State providing a substantial part of the cost. But the school is managed, not by the State, but by a voluntary agency who raise a contribution towards the cost. This has always been the case in respect of schools in the primary education system. It is and will be the case here.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not accept that he should be looking at this matter in a different way? The existing school is more than 100 years old. It is a school which was vacated because in the eyes of the Department it was unfit for primary school students, but for the last five or six years we have been attempting in that school to give to these unfortunate students that which is their constitutional right.
This is a long question. I have given the Deputy a lot of latitude but his questions must be brief.
In respect of the new school, the Parliamentary Secretary is saying that the parents should pay for it. The parents are not in that parish at all.
The Department are prepared to pay ten-elevenths of the cost of the works and they have so indicated to the trustees. What is in question is the local contribution which is the remaining one-eleventh. That is standard procedure in respect of all schools in the primary education system, including special schools. A local contribution, very often proportionately much larger than the one in this case, is raised by local interests. That procedure is being followed here as in other cases.
It is a custom more honoured in the breach than in the observance.
The Deputy is incorrect in that statement.