Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leader for facilitating this Private Members' motion and thank the Minister for making herself available to come to the House to discuss this important topic. I can appreciate how busy she is as she engages with all the different matters that come before her desk. The motion recognises that the system that has been put in place by the Department has been pretty successful until relatively recently, in my experience. I know the Minister is aware of enrolment pressures, particularly in high-growth areas and commuter areas. I know the Department is engaging with second level schools to try to share application data to determine the full extent of where we are.

I have engaged extensively with the Minister and the Department on school places at second level in and around Newbridge and Kildare town in south Kildare. I want to acknowledge that this issue is not confined to my area. It is replicated across the country, particularly in areas which have had large population growth in recent years. From talking to parents and schools, I know there are countless children aged 11 and 12 who are very anxious and worried about where they will go to school next year. This has been happening over recent years. I have raised the hurt, stress and fear experienced by parents and students because they were not successful in securing a second level place in their communities or their school of choice. I have received quite a lot of correspondence on this in recent years. One parent told me that out of their child’s class of 29 pupils, five did not get places in schools. It is shocking that there are children sitting in a class not knowing where they will go to secondary school. One can only imagine the stress or anxiety this is causing when all the other friends are chatting and getting excited about places. This person’s son was totally alienated. Another parent wrote of how they were in complete limbo as to what to do. Their daughter was to start secondary school in the next year but as places were given out, she was the only child in her class to have not been offered a place. This parent said they had no idea what to do or who to turn to. It is particularly difficult where people move into a town, particularly in the commuter belt, where the child does not have siblings or a parent who went to the school. They feel they are being disadvantaged.

I know the Department is engaged in this. I know things have improved in south Kildare over the last two years but we need to see a more co-ordinated approach. Many parents are hugely frustrated because their child has no designated place. They are also very frustrated with the haphazard and somewhat chaotic process that they have to follow in some towns. We all know the impact that duplicate applications can have on the process. They can result in huge waiting lists that cause unnecessary stress because they are not truly reflective of the demand. This is the nub of the issue. I appreciate that it is very difficult for the Minister’s Department to step in to co-ordinate those.A great deal is left to the principal and the board of management. A more streamlined approach is crucial, especially for large urban areas. I understand that the sharing of data between schools has been effective in identifying school place requirements in certain areas. This has worked well in Limerick and Ennis. In the majority of areas, sufficient school places are, I am told, available to meet the needs of children. That may well be, but when children and their families do not know until the start of the secondary school year, it causes problems. The Department is working to strengthen its enrolment approach for the 2025-26 school year and in the context of future admissions processes. A common applications system has worked well in Limerick city and Ennis, and a pilot programme has been put in place in the Newbridge area. I am still waiting for feedback on the latter. The provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people in primary and post-primary school, including those with special educational needs, is a priority for the Minister, but it has to be an absolute priority in terms of how we plan going forward.

Since the Minister took office in 2020, the Department of Education has invested in the region of €4.5 billion in schools. That is massive, including the completion of over 800 schools building projects and construction under way on 300 others. That is significant investment, but some schools in the catchment areas I am talking about still await final sign-off, such as Newbridge Patrician Secondary School, which has plans to expand to up to 1,000 pupils from fewer than 700 at the moment. The process seems to be quite slow.

The recent agreement on medium-term capital allocations allows us to move forward with plans to expand the number of available places. That is important. The pressures parents face when seeking special education placements for their children is also significant. This year, the number of SENOs will increase to 120. That is important. We still have situations, though, where places are not available for children and their parents are going through an extremely stressful time. As politicians, we all hear week in and week out about how parents of children with additional needs feel they have to fight for everything and battle the system at every turn to receive the support their children need to live up to their full potential.

I accept the roll-out of a centralised application system for special education could pose challenges in terms of catering for students with different and unique needs, but something needs to be put in place to make the process easier for families involved. Key to solving the challenges relating to school admissions will be continued delivery of additional capacity and progression of large-scale capital projects such as those I mentioned. Delivery must be fast-tracked in order to meet the growing need.

It is fair to say that not everybody would like a central application process. Parents still feel strongly about having choice for their children. Choice is extremely important, particularly for those who live in larger areas, but the reality is that many parents are not getting any choice whatsoever. If we were able to give an element of choice to parents on behalf of the children to prioritise one school over another, etc., that could still happen but it would happen at a faster rate and we could ensure there are adequate places for children leaving sixth class to go into secondary schools.

I appreciate the Minister being here to listen to this. I will hand over to my colleague Senator Byrne.