Joanna Tuffy (Dublin Mid West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I urge the Minister to exercise caution on that issue in general. Specifically, I have concerns regarding the agendas that might be at play on the part of particular movements within the patronage sector. I am not referring only to the Irish language movement here. In fact, I am on record as having criticised the ways in which Educate Together, to give another example, has sometimes pushed its agenda. When we are told about huge waiting lists for certain types of schools in certain areas, it is important to consider how reliable that information might be. Sometimes it is based on data which do not give a complete picture because, for instance, they incorporate an element of duplication or are not clear as to the reasons people might be putting their children's names down on a particular waiting list. There are issues to consider when it comes to the motivation of particular groups of parents.

The issue of greatest concern in Lucan is that there are two schools, in particular, in which significant numbers of the students are being taught in prefabricated buildings that are in a simply awful condition. They are conditions in which an adult would not be willing to work. Sometimes what we ask small children to put up with is at odds with what we ourselves would tolerate in terms of accommodation and so on. There is a question mark over whether there is a requirement for new schools in Lucan. Several principals of schools in the area have indicated to me privately that, in their view, there was no need for the school that was recently established. As I said, it is important to consider the agendas that might be at play. It is probably to be expected that people will tend to talk up the demand that is there for their own particular model of education.

When a delegation from the joint committee travelled to Finland we saw an education system that is based on a single model of education provision. There is a sense in which the choice within our system is in itself a driver of inequality which would not arise if we had one model of education delivery at primary level. Under such a system, schools would, according to my preference, be State-run and multidenominational, established in consultation with all stakeholders and catering for everybody, with the compromises that would inevitably involve. The notion that we must have a range of choices is often motivated by a need to confer advantage on a particular set of people to the disadvantage of another set. We must be careful in that regard. It will be interesting to see what comes out of the report to which the Minister referred. The issue I am pointing up is part of the broader enrolment issue.