Was anyone in the Department of Education even remotely surprised by the virtual failure of the Muslim school in Cabra to achieve even minimal standards of education?

It was effectively established as a madrasah, which would produce good little Muslims. That, I have no doubt, is what it has achieved. To be sure, they might not be well-educated little Muslims, and their career prospects are probably poor. But at least they are Muslims, the production of which was the intended function of the school.

Needless to say, no other country in Europe has allowed the creation of a separate Muslim educational system. That is Ireland's melancholy contribution to the brainless heresy that is multiculturalism.