FIANNA Fail in government would grant official recognition and funding to four gaelscoileanna currently denied such recognition, according to the party's education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin.
He called on the Minister for Education, Ms Breathnach, to grant recognition to the schools in Ballybrack, Co Dublin; Enniscorthy, Co Wexford; Clones, Co Monaghan; and Maynooth Co Kildare. The four schools were refused recognition in recent weeks, together with three others which have since been recognised on appeal.
Mr Martin outlined Fianna Fail policy on all Irish schools at a press briefing yesterday. He said the Government should draw up a five year development plan for the sector. Recent decisions showed "a contempt by the Minister for the views and entitlements of parents throughout the country", he said.
Any objective analysis of the recent controversy showed that the Minister had changed the rules for recognition in late July, he said. "Up to then new gaelscoileanna were allowed to combine their enrolment over two years in order to reach the threshold of 20 pupils. Now the Minister is insisting that any new school will have to find 20 junior infants every year."
This amounted to a "hidden agenda" operating against all Irish schools within the Department of Education, as it would now prove much more difficult to set up all Irish schools in small towns.