TD coughs up half salary so school can hire teacher

One TD has today given us some hope that we might finally have a political class we can believe in. Brendan Griffin has donated half his pay to a rural school so they can hire another teacher.

The Fine Gael TD is coming to the school's rescue after it lost its third teacher, ironically because of Government cutbacks.

Fybough National School can't believe their luck today as they'll be getting a €46,000 windfall from the local TD. Brendan has only accepted half his salary since taking his seat last year and will donate the other half to the school.

The school near Castlemaine had to get rid of one of its staff after Brendan's own party backed the increase from 49 to 51 student to qualify for a third teacher.

Fybough unsuccessfully appealed to the Department of Education and were facing having to get by with one less teacher.

The money now means the school can hire a new teacher outside the control of the department in time for the next school year.

"It's absolutely fantastic, especially when we were so downhearted after losing the appeal," the principal Angela Prendergast told the Irish Independent.