It’s not often that adults get time off to go back to school; well that’s just what John Mates, Billy Brown and Paul Garton did during Halloween. The Dublin Port Company, as part of its corporate community relations policy, sent a crew of painters to St. Patrick’s Boys’ National School in Ringsend for a week during the Halloween break. The task they were given was to paint the hall, stairs and landing.

The Dublin Port Company’s man on the ground, Charlie Murphy visited the school recently and agreed with the school principal, Mr Pat Coyle that the boys’ national school in Ringsend badly needed to be painted.

All national schools are financed through a capitation grant that the Department of Education gives on the basis of the number of pupils. The school then uses this grant to pay school expenses.

This system is grand for schools with high numbers of pupils. The problem is that numbers in St. Patrick’s Boys’ National School has been falling. There are now only 90 pupils in the school.
Small numbers are good for the pupils because they have small classes and a good teacher ratio. The pupils get excellent service from the teachers and learn very well.

However, small classes are bad for school maintenance. The first bill that has to be paid every year is insurance. This comes to over €6,000. The next bill is heating and light. After that, the capitation grant is used up. The result is that cleaning and painting are left until last and the much-needed painting never gets done.

The boys were welcomed by Pat Coyle Principal of the school who could not contain his delight, when they returned after their break. He thanked the Dublin Port Company for their contribution and said that it is an example of how other companies could contribute to the communities in which they are located.

Pictured above are Paul Garton and John Mates.