TD personally pays for extra teacher in constituency school

Brendan Griffin donates almost €250,000 of own salary

Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin pictured canvassing in Killarney earlier this year

A Fine Gael TD has donated almost €250,000 from his own salary to employ an extra teacher at a primary school in his constituency.

Kerry TD Brendan Griffin agreed back in 2011 to hand over half of his €87,258 annual salary to Fybough National School in Castlemaine to employ a third teacher at the small school.

Under Department of Education guidelines a school must have 55 pupils to qualify for three teachers, but ...