Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)

It comes as a bolt from the blue for parents when they discover their child is not automatically entitled to a place in a local school. We have an annual season in Kildare called find a school place. It starts around March, and there is a frenzy for months afterwards. This happens every year, and as we do not have a State-run school system, the boards of management become a buffer for the Department of Education and Science. The Department indicates, when asked about a specific four year old or five year old, that the child is not legally required to attend school until the age of six. One should try saying this to the parent who has a child in a playschool for a couple of years, with the child totally bored.

With one school in Kildare, the Office of Public Works has taken seven years to find a site. The national school in Kill has a big billboard on the side of the school, or rather the collection of prefabs, stating that the school is full. A full class of children have not gained admission to that school. Every year we see a rush of planning permissions for prefabs and the Department often sanctions these at the 11th hour. For example, one is needed for Straffan in September and until last Friday there has been no word on this.

A new school in Naas was constructed to take 16 classes. Many of the classrooms will remain vacant for up to seven years because the other schools in the area cannot agree a joint enrolment policy. This is occurring in a town where children are in prefabs, gym halls, classes of more than 35 and where children are being refused places. Parents are driving their children to three or more schools every day, adding to traffic jams and stress levels, and often ensuring that a parent cannot return to the workforce. They were angry about this last year during the by-election campaign, and they will be twice as angry when the general election comes around next year.

Recently we were told that we had to fill in a census form so that services could be planned. Where is the evidence that census figures were used in the past? With the rate of growth that is occurring in Celbridge, for example, it is entirely possible to predict the need for a new primary school. This will not materialise as a result of people filling out a census form. It will come about after enough parents get angry enough and after enough children have been refused school places. At that stage we will get a prefab in a field.

I represent a constituency which has been developing since the 1970s. We could run courses in crisis management because that is what we are experiencing with the issue of education provision. It is time we had real integrated planning and delivery in a timely way of critical facilities such as schools.

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