Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I am glad the Minister is here. If she could take the time to meet parents in Hartstown, Ongar, Littlepace, Diswellstown and various other rapidly growing parts of Dublin 15, she would learn more in one hour from the frustration, anger and bewilderment of parents about why their children cannot get into schools than from all the population change statistics that her Department can issue.

The Taoiseach and his various Ministers for Education and Science in the past nine years had the audacity to promise class sizes of 20 or fewer pupils under nine years of age. In other words, they promised that no child in junior or senior infants, first, second or third class would have more than 20 pupils in his or her class. It has not happened. Those who made the promise knew they could not deliver on it nationally or in the developing areas which I have the honour and responsibility to represent. It was a crude, headline, vote-buying promise. How could there be classes of 20 or fewer pupils in schools of 1,000 pupils but 32 classrooms, which is the Minister's model for what the children of Dublin 15 will have? The Taoiseach should apologise for his failure and deception of parents.

Dublin 15 schools are faced with another growing challenge, that is, catering for significant numbers of students for whom English is not their first language or their home language. Throughout primary schools in Dublin West, enrolment rates of international children have soared, so that in the junior classes of a number of schools, international children account for more than 50% of those attending. Currently, the Minister allows two, and in extreme cases a maximum of three, support teachers for two years, but educational research carried out by principals in my constituency shows that two years is inadequate, particularly in an environment where parents do not speak English in the home.

The pressure of class sizes is not just about numbers. It is also about the diverse and particular needs of the children in the new communities in places such as Dublin 15. As the Minister represents the area of south Dublin where there are problems of empty classes, I can understand why she does not understand what is happening in the expanding areas. She has not taken the opportunity to go out and see what parents, children and teachers are going through.

Working in classes of more than 30 pupils, teachers are expected to use the new curriculum, which involves children moving around, interacting and so on. They are also meant to cater for special needs children in the context of integration, which we all support. In Dublin 15, there are many classes of 30 pupils with ten or more international children whose English is weak. The teachers, principals, boards of management, patrons, Church patrons, Educate Together and the Gaelscoileanna are making extraordinary efforts to give children the best education, but the Minister's unstated policy is that large class sizes will continue in Dublin 15 for at least the next eight years. She is creating a strain with which the system cannot cope.

What has happened in Dublin 15 during the nine years of this Government is a shame. These areas were specifically chosen by the Government as development zones and permission was granted and pushed for by Fianna Fáil and the PDs for thousands of new homes. Since the first house was built, local community councils and public representatives have urged the Government to pay attention to future educational needs, but the Department and successive Fianna Fáil Ministers have ignored these messages and allowed one annual crisis after another to build up.

Recently, the Minister's colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, confessed that the Government was caught on the hop. It did not expect that people coming to this country would bring their children with them to be educated here or would have children during their early adult years here. The Government did not understand that when houses were built, there might be the pitter patter of little feet five years later, and that those children of the nation would one day expect to get seats in primary schools as per the Constitution and the Proclamation of Independence. What imagination would be required to convince the Government it is important to deliver education, which is one of the rocks on which we have built our economic success, to children in new communities?

Several weeks ago, the crisis for the Minister was in Littlepace. This week, it is in Hartstown. I spent 1.5 hours on Saturday morning with baffled and bewildered parents. They already had children in the local parish school, which has fantastic teachers and a wonderful principal. However, they received a note in May that due to the pressure of places, the school would only take children who were four years of age before 31 December 2005. In other words, they would need to be four and three quarter years of age before they got school places in September. Can the Minister imagine what this requirement has done to pre-schools in the area? Parents gave up places on the understanding their four and a half year olds could get places in Irish schools, as would be traditionally expected.

The only solution the Government offers is the crude pressure on schools to add prefabs and-or additional streams to accommodate extra demands. Three weeks ago, the Minister belatedly made a rushed announcement about an extra school that will come on stream but we do not know the exact site. I want to know this and the precise amount of land that will be devoted to the welcome school. As I understand it, up to 2,000 children in two primary schools will be taught on a 4.5 acre site. How will the Minister do this because I fail to understand how she will cope?

This is Ireland at its most prosperous. The accident and emergency situation properly gets attention as the most blatant case of public squalor amid private affluence in the world's fourth richest country. However, the overcrowded primary schools and failure to guarantee places to all children in an area is no less of a scandal. In prosperous Ireland, we have super-sized classes and schools built on sites that are much too small to offer adequate play space. Land is sold to the State by unscrupulous developers at grossly inflated prices because they know how careless and negligent Fianna Fáil Ministers have been since 1997 in planning ahead. These are the developers who feature so prominently at the various fundraising functions of the Fianna Fáil Party. Who is codding whom?

What are the Minister's plans for Dublin 15? What will she do about the current crisis in Hartstown? Crisis meetings are taking place but parents want an answer. As well as the current situation experienced in the areas highlighted, there is the continuing position of the super-sized classes. According to the Minister's answer to my question last week, comparing the year on year situation in many schools, there are 89 classes of 30 pupils or more in the Dublin 15 area. Unless the Minister can suggest a worse area, this probably means Dublin 15 has the greatest concentration of large-sized classes. This is like a league of shame on her part in terms of her failure to deliver for our children, who are our future.

All of the schools in Dublin 15 are experiencing greatly increased numbers but are receiving very little extra assistance from the Minister. The school principals, various teaching organisations, the INTO and numerous researchers have told the Minister what she needs to do with regard to international children. I read the amendment tabled by Fianna Fáil. I do not know if it was drafted by the Minister, but it congratulates her for what she has failed to do for children who do not speak English as their first language. It demonstrates political brass neck and brazen cheek of a kind that I would not normally associate with the Minister for Education and Science.

I have not had time to deal with the issue of second level places but as surely as little children go to primary school, eight years later they end up at the door of a secondary school. The Government promised, seven years ago, an additional secondary school in Ongar, where 8,000 extra houses have been built and occupied, but has now deferred the provision of that school for another two years. Once again, parents will be out with banners trying to make the Minister pay attention to their plight.

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