Mr. P?iric Clerkin:

The question was asked about who has the information and when it becomes available. The Department has regional data but as to who has the information, on a local level it is the school. When does it have it? It has it as a result of its admissions week. That is happening eight or nine months at most before the children are due to start school. Again, the admissions process is robust, fair and good but it is not working for children with complex needs and we need to look at that. It is a fix that can be resolved.

My school is in Dublin 15 where there was pressure on school places for a long number of years. The problem is leadership at a regional level where there is pressure on school places through oversubscription of schools. The way to resolve that issue, which again is very resolvable, is shared enrolment policies. However, to make that work is getting more complex. In many of the local areas, schools now have different patron bodies. I have spoken to many of the patron bodies about this and there is a willingness to work together, but what is required is leadership at local level. I suggest that leadership needs to come through the system such as through the inspectorate or a body like that, where schools are brought together to address some of the issues of concern where there might be oversubscription. When schools work together, which I have seen in my own area, it can be ensured every child gets access to school at the most appropriate age.

To make the system really work well for children so they have access to a local school at an appropriate age, which is what we all want to see, we need to work together and find better ways to do so into the future. This is especially so when we know that, in areas where there is pressure, we need to implement policies such as shared admissions policies. However, we need somebody to bring that together and to steer that between the different schools because each of the schools is an independent body. There is a willingness to do that but it is about helping them get over some of the barriers to it.

I return to the point that the admissions process does not work for children with complex needs. Assessing eight to nine months in advance of a child starting school will not work and we will continue to face these problems in the future where we have section 37, which is reactionary, and we will never give those children the opportunity to attend their local school with their brothers and sisters unless we correct that.