A primary school in the Conamara Gaeltacht is offering a five-bedroom house rent-free for the 2023/2024 academic year to a family with school-going children in a bid to boost pupil numbers.
Scoil Naomh Pádraig in An Chloch Bhreac needs to increase its attendance ahead of the next school year or it will lose a teacher.
The principal of the rural Gaelscoil, Gearóidín Uí Fhiric, told RTÉ's News at One that she expects a lot of interest and said the initiative was more about keeping the school in the community for the next generation.
Ms Uí Fhiric explained that as it is a two-teacher school with a learning support teacher, there needs to be a minimum of 12 pupils to hold two teachers.
She said if a teacher is lost, it would be the start of the school, which has been there since before 1965, closing down.
"Once the school goes, you lose that community spirit where everybody is together and it would be such a shame," Ms Uí Fhiric said.
"We have a beautiful school in a beautiful area with fantastic facilities. We have a pitch, a playground, yard games...an outdoor classroom in a beautiful scenic area."
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Ms Uí Fhiric said Irish would be an advantage but is not a requirement and said the house is a chance for families living in cities to experience a different lifestyle.
She said the area is widely known for fishing, mountaineering and hill walks.
The school has been given the house from a community funded initiative backed by the Comharchumann Dhúiche Sheoigheach Teo co-op and local business ECC.
Ms Uí Fhiric said that the school was expecting a similar level of applications as experienced in a recent campaign on Inis Meáin, which received more than 1,600 applications.
