Two members of the board of management of a Co Tipperary school have resigned in protest after students there were circulated with political letters by Independent TD Michael Lowry.
Mr Lowry, a deputy for Tipperary North, has already defended the decision to give hundreds of letters to schoolchildren at Borrisokane Community College outlining his success in securing a new school building.
Fianna Fáil councillor Jim Casey and Canon Stephen Neill have both tendered their resignations from the board of management in recent days.
The letters, which were given to students in Oireachtas envelopes to hand to their parents, state that Mr Lowry played a key role in securing a new school building for the community college.
It had been a "primary condition" of his support for the Fianna Fáil-led government.
"Using my influence . . . I ensured the community school was rapidly brought beyond the planning stage, that the project was brought to the top of the school building priority list, and that an irreversible decision was made to fund same."
He continued: "In order to achieve this I brought the project right into the heart of Government and made sure that the project would become a reality."
In his statement to the board on Monday, Canon Stephen Neill said he felt that both the pupils of the school and the principal were victims of what a fellow board member, councillor Virginia O’Dowd, had described as 'cute hoor' politics.
He said that if one person was to be singled out for credit for the school building it was the principal himself.
He said that regardless of what leverage Mr Lowry was able to exert on the previous government, it represented "the worst of parish pump politics and is hardly something to celebrate or use children to promote".
Canon Neill posted the full text of his statement on his blog today. He said it was with “huge regret and sadness” he was taking the resignation step.
Some parents objected to the letters. One told The Irish Times last month it was "highly inappropriate" for schoolchildren to be used for political purposes.
"In addition, we all know that several different political representatives have been involved in lobbying for a new school."
The school’s principal Mathew Carr has said that from time to time the college receives material for distribution to parents and students. It typically facilitated these requests, provided the material did not contain anything objectionable.
Mr Carr said last month that all political representatives have shown interest in the development of the school over the past 10 years.
"Some of the political representatives have written to parents and students. These written correspondences were distributed by the school in order to protect the personal data of the students."