Ballymore is a small village in County Westmeath, built on the shores of Lough Sludy, one of the many lakes in County Westmeath. It boasts an excellent community spirit and, on driving through its wide streets, the efforts of a hardworking tidy towns group are evident. This picturesque village is located a short distance only from, geographically, the centre of Ireland. Ballymore was once known as the village with two ends and no middle, but infill housing and development of the centre of the village has remedied that problem and the community is now a thriving, vibrant one.
Past pupils of Ballymore national school have emigrated to all quarters of the world. Missionary priests, brothers and sisters from Ballymore are in every continent and past pupils are in key positions throughout the country. Indeed, the grounding in this school has stood all its pupils well, it can also boast of being the alma mater of this humble representative of the people of County Westmeath.
Education has always been a priority in this village and the old primary school was replaced by the present building in 1954. The building was typical of the design of that period and a classroom extension was built some years ago. The school does not have the services of a remedial teacher and an application for this school and the adjoining ones was forwarded to the Department but turned down. Drumraney national school, Boher national school and Ballymore national school have eight teachers between them and ideally could be serviced by a remedial teacher.
There is a very high level of disadvantage in this area. The Department has its own criteria for measuring disadvantage but we can measure disadvantage in any area by looking at some of the facts. Twenty one per cent of the pupils attending the schools live in local authority housing, 45 per cent are in households where the parents hold medical cards and 33 per cent of the parents of the children are unemployed. It should also be noted that a number of pupils in the school have speech difficulties and one child has a severe hearing difficulty. The school building is badly in need of upgrading and modernisation. The roof leaks and the toilets, particularly the boys' toilets, are in a very unhygienic state.
The input of parents to this school over the years has been tremendous and it will be a fatal blow if the Minister cannot find it possible to reappoint Miss Kelly to this school for 1993. It will have sufficient enrolment to appoint a teacher in September 1994 but, unfortunately, the numbers for this year fell two short of the number required. On behalf of the children, the parents, the board of management and the teachers I beg the Minister to appoint a teacher to this school commencing September 1993 bearing in mind the numbers that will be there in 1994 and the difficulties which could arise for teachers and pupils alike.
