I am delighted to have this opportunity to request the Minister to include the Presentation primary school Carrick-on-Suir in the disadvantaged areas scheme. Carrick-on-Suir has suffered enormously from unemployment during the past number of years. At one stage the unemployment rate was 33.5 per cent which brings its own social consequences and disadvantage for many students attending the school.
The school has 545 pupils on the roll and this includes eight traveller children, with no special travellers teacher, two children with cerebal palsy, eight children with mild mental handicap and a large number who are slow and have poor mental capabilities.
In spite of such disadvantage the school has only one remedial teacher who started last September. With 75 pupils on her list the school has to decide that some of those who would need remedial help could not avail of it. The school, together with other schools, has been allocated a resource teacher so that many of the children with physical and mental disabilities receive no help on a daily basis. Pupils would need a resource teacher twice or three times a week but that service cannot be provided.
There are three junior infant classes with 30 pupils each and in each class there is a child with cerebal palsy, cystic fibrosis or mental handicap. In the two senior infant classes each with 36 pupils, one child in the class has cerebal palsy and a child in the other class has a mild mental handicap. In third class there are 34 pupils, one of whom has a mental deficiency, and in fourth class one child has a combination of mental and physical disabilities. All these children are functioning very much below the average child of their age.
Other data substantiate their demand to be considered disadvantaged. Of the 506 pupils in the school, 58 per cent live in a local authority housing area, 62 per cent are medical card holders and the parents of 60 per cent of the students are in receipt of social welfare. What does it take to be deemed eligible for disadvantaged status?
Over the past number of years, two of the secondary schools in the town were given concessionary posts because of the need in those schools. It is unwise to omit the primary school sector. Providing additional posts and such necessary help at secondary school level cannot be fruitful or worthwhile when it is not provided at primary level.
I cannot let the opportunity go without complimenting the staff whose dedication and determination is keeping the school alive and helping students to attain a standard that could not otherwise be achieved. It would be a worth-while decision by the Minister if she were to give disadvantaged status to the Presentation Convent primary school, Carrick-on-Suir, immediately.
In reply to a question on 29 May 1995, the Minister, Deputy Bhreathnach, informed me that she hoped to receive a report on the outcome of the study of the Combat Poverty Agency by the middle of 1995 and she would then be able to arrive at a decision. We are now approaching mid-1996. I ask the Minister to consider my request with generosity.
