Emer Currie (Dublin West, Fine Gael)

My sense of it is that it is not as many as last year, but it is still a significant number. Today is an important day because many schools broke for the holidays. All the talk over the summer will be, “Where are you going to big school?” For those families, their life is on hold over the summer. It is a difficult time. I am dealing with parents who have done everything right. They have campaigned, not just this summer but last summer as well, to ensure there would be a school place. The task force was set up to ensure that families would not have to go through this again.

Regarding the task force, the Minister of State mentioned some timings. He might let me know what exactly the timings are with the task force report and also the scope he is expecting from the recommendations. Will it deal with the communications issues we have seen with regard to schools, patrons and the NCSE establishing capacity and demand, taking into consideration what a school’s internal need is and also external demand, making sure that we know exactly how many places are available in schools? The common applications process has been hugely beneficial in Dublin 15. A recommendation might be that it be rolled out nationally. We have had examples of announcements about building works in schools for special education classes and then the places have not materialised. Will the task force seek to address situations like that?