(South Tipperary) asked the Minister for Education the future position of the vocational schools at Cappawhite and Cashel and the domestic school at Dundrum, County Tipperary.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Tipperary Schools.
22.
The pupil potential available in the Cappawhite catchment area is sufficient to maintain a viable junior cycle school. Enrolments in the vocational school are, however, low and the school has obviously been having difficulty in attracting pupils within its catchment area in the face of competition from contiguous larger centres. We can only wait and see how it fares in conditions of free transport.
The vocational school in Cashel will undoubtedly survive but I am anxious that there should be the closest co-operation between the three post-primary schools in Cashel so as to provide all pupils with as wide a curriculum as possible and to make the best use of the resources available in the town in the interests of the children.
St. Michael's College of Home Economics, Dundrum, is a private institution receiving grants from my Department. I understand that the future of that school is at present under consideration by its authorities.
Did I hear the Minister refer to a catchment area in relation to pupils?
It is in relation to the geography.
The geography? I understood that catchment area related to rivers, water and such like. The suggestion is that these are pupils who have to be, as it were, netted.
It is the collection by transport of an area——
It must represent the apogee of Civil Service gibberish.
If the Deputy would suggest another term for the collection of children in a specified geographical area by transport, the Minister would be delighted.
It should not put any strain on anybody's mind to do so.