This article is from page 4 of the 2007-03-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
GENERAL election candidates have been warned that the issue of class sizes would meet them at every door- step in Clare.
Sheila Noonan, Deputy General Secretary of the INTO, told the Clare meeting on the issue that parents, teachers and all concerned with pri- mary class size must question every canvasser who called to the door.
Ann McMahon, Principal of New- market National School but speaking as a parent, said that if animals were in classrooms in groups of 35 or 36, the ISPCA would be called in to take action against overcrowding.
Chairperson of Ennis National School Parents Association, Aine Ni Riain stated that there were serious health issues surrounding the whole issue of overcrowded classrooms, and while it was a very exciting time educationally for children, large class sizes were blighting it.
Daithi O Byrne, a parent from Clonmoney National School, said politicians must realize the solidar- ity that existed between parents and teachers on the class-size issue.
Fr Gerry Kenny, Killaloe Diocesan Secretary and representative of the Catholic Primary Managers Associa- tion, lent his support to the campaign to cut class sizes.
He also outlined the support of Bishop Willie Walsh, patron of 150 primary schools in the Killaloe Dio- cese, for the campaign and stated that the Department of Education needed to plan for lower class sizes in all new school buildings.
Minister for Labour Affairs Tony Killeen (FF) told the meeting that he would take a clear message to the Taoiseach from Shannon that not enough had been done on the issue of class size.
Senators Brendan Daly (FF) and Timmy Dooley (FF) also undertook to represent and support the views of the meeting on the issue, as did La- bour candidate Pascal Fitzgerald.
Fine Gael election candidates Cllr Joe Carey, Cllr Tony Mulcahy and Cllr Madeleine Taylor-Quinn said that their party would publish a policy document dealing with class size in primary schools, while party TD Pat Breen pointed out that there would be 58,000 more primary pu- piuls within the system by 2012.
Deputy James Breen (Ind) said in- dependent TDs had outlined their unified support for a year by year re- duction in class size to bring classes down to 20 as promised by the cur- rent Government.
The Green Party and their candi- date in Clare, Cllr Brian Meaney, supported this policy.