"This school has 498 pupils, from junior infants to second class," says Bryan O'Reilly, principal of the junior school at Scoil Mhuire, in Newbridge, Co Kildare.

"The senior school has 480 pupils, from third to sixth class. They both serve the same community, with children coming from the same families, and they're both designated disadvantaged."

However, under the Giving Children an Even Break scheme, the senior school gets five times as much funding. O'Reilly wants to know why. After nearly two years he still hasn't got a satisfactory answer from the Department of Education.

Support and cash for disadvantaged schools has improved all the same, he says. His school has resource teachers, a learning-support teacher (he needs another) and three special-needs assistants; more than 100 parents volunteer each week to work on paired reading. The pupil-teacher ratio is 29 to one (one better than what applies in non- disadvantaged schools, but the ratio for junior and senior infants should be 20 to one). The Home School Community Liaison initiative is a real boon.

Most of all, O'Reilly says, "I want transparency." O'Reilly says localised decision-making is essential and would welcome audits. Finally, perhaps wistfully, he would like to see an end to "bureaucratic nonsense".