Parents who protested in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, this week at the Department of Education's schools integration policy have withdrawn their threat to remove their children from the town's two primary schools.
Mr James Feane of the Parents' Council, said his local TD, Mr Michael Collins (FF), had told him the necessary resources would be provided and parent representatives would attend policy review meetings with the Department's school planning officer this week.
"The tide has turned a lot. They are getting us involved. We had been excluded," he said.
Parents picketed St Anne's and St Joseph's primary schools on Tuesday over what they saw as the Department's failure to prevent disruption of classes by Traveller children who attend for only part of the year.
Mr Collins said he had met the Minister, Dr Woods, and the Department's secretary general, Mr John Dennehy, this week. "I have got a commitment from the Department" on flexibility, he said and any additional teachers required "will be provided".
Mr Gearoid O Riain of the Travellers' support group, Pavee Point, welcomed the parents' decision. "It is unfair to involve the children like that. I think it is bad for relations in the schools," he said.
The Department needed to devise a programme for nomadic Traveller children, he added. "We would be very keen that there would be no return to segregation or segregation by another name."