School Staff
Dail Éireann — 2026-10-01
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Louise O'Reilly (SF), Dublin Fingal West

This concerns the reckless decision of the Government to remove a teacher, the 11th mainstream teaching post, from St. Patrick's Junior National School in Skerries. I will refer to what a parent wrote to me. I have spoken to parents and teachers. They are absolutely frantic. She said the school currently has 267 pupils, which is above the standard retention threshold of 258. This raises an important question. Why is a school that remains above the normal teacher retention threshold losing a teaching post and doing so in a way and at a time when there will be the maximum amount of disruption on 23 October? That means we have 22 days to change the Minister of State's mind and for him to reverse this reckless decision. Parents have written to me and what they are saying is that it seems like this Government is failing their children. This will put the class size at 33. We know that the Minister is aiming for 21. At the moment, the number is 22, but it will move it to 33. That is absolutely reckless. This decision must be reversed.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:01:00+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-10-01