My question concerns an extraordinary matter. I asked the Minister for Education in a Dáil question whether she would make a grant payable under the remote areas grant scheme to a child from Inishbofin who wished to attend Kylemore Abbey school. I thought the request was a reasonable one and would be easily acceded to, particularly since there is no other girls' boarding school in County Galway. In her reply the Minister said she could not accede to that request because the boarding school fees for Kylemore Abbey were in excess of £1,750, but she would pay the grant for the child to attend Kylemore Abbey as a day pupil and stay in a guest house in the area, irrespective of what lodgings would cost — notwithstanding the fact that a benefactor had offered to make up the difference between the grant and the fees being charged by the school. This is a most extraordinary decision.
I understand that since that time the school in question has agreed on an exceptional basis to accept pupils who are entitled to the remote areas grant at the amount of grant that the Department is willing to pay. It is most extraordinary that the Minister refuses to pay the basic grant for the child to attend this boarding school but would not have a problem paying the grant for her to attend it as a day pupil and stay in a guest house in the area.
Most parents believe their child would be safer in a boarding school and would be more likely to attend to her studies. They would have fewer reasons to worry about her behaviour and safety if she were boarding than if she were staying in a guest house, no matter how good. This is not a matter of cost but of bureaucracy gone mad. A second such case has arisen. Somebody on the mainland made a similar request.
We have heard about the Minister's interest in the education of island pupils. What educational arrangements does she propose to make for girls living on islands off County Galway? According to the replies we have received, parents whose daughters wish to attend second level school are faced with the following options: (1) they do without schooling; (2) they attend day school and stay in lodgings or (3) the parents pay the full cost of boarding school. The chance of getting lodgings in the Kylemore or Clifden area adjacent to the schools would not be great, but those two places are particularly convenient to Inishbofin Island. It would be very awkward for a child from Inishbofin to attend school in Galway city.
Will the Minister reconsider her reply? What arrangements will be made for female students entering the senior cycle for the first time to have boarding school education? There is no second level school on Inishbofin or Inishmaan and provision for only first and second year post-primary education on Inisheer. Will the Minister look again at this issue? I am sure that in spite of bureaucratic rules sanity will prevail.
