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Ruairí Quinn Chris Bacon/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Schools

Ruairí Quinn attacks schools and parents for not doing enough: report

The Minister for Education has criticised the actions of schools and parents in relation to one instance where a school building was infested with rats and urged communities do more to maintain their education facilities.

THE MINISTER FOR Education has taken aim at those running schools and parents appearing to accuse them of not doing enough to sort out the problems in some of the country’s schools.

In an interview with the Irish Daily Mail, Ruairí Quinn expressed anger at the board of management and the parents of children who attend the Ballinkillen National School in Carlow which hit the headlines in 2009 when it emerged the school building was infested with rats. Quinn told the paper:

You have to ask the question what the hell is the board of management doing? What the hell is the principal doing, what the hell is the community doing?

He accused the parents of children at the school who live in “wonderful houses, with two or three cars parked outside every door” of being “content” to let their children go to such a school. Quinn also suggested that communities should do maintenance work on schools while they wait for funding.

Yesterday, it was reported that the minister had told his cabinet colleagues they must work faster to push through promised legislation with just six of the 20 bills the government had promised to publish by the summer recess being put forward so far.

Read more from Niamh Lyons story in today’s Irish Daily Mail >

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