Three offshore communities threatened with the loss of a second teaching post in each of their island national schools have won a reprieve of a year from the Department of Education.
The decision of Minister for Education Mary Hanafin to allow three island primary schools - Tory Island (Donegal); Inishturk (Mayo) and Inishmaan (Galway) - retain the second teacher for a period of 12 months has been warmly welcomed.
The boards of management in the schools had issued a special appeal to Minister for the Gaeltacht and the Islands Éamon Ó Cuív to retain the posts.
They argued that the islands were already seriously disadvantaged and the removal of the second teacher would make them even more so.
Announcing the concession for the three island schools, Mr Ó Cuív said one of the major problems for offshore primary schools was that if a teacher became ill, or was absent for any other reason, it was much more difficult to get a substitute teacher to take their place.