Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

To date, more than 20 children who applied for places next September have been turned away from St. Ciaran's national school in Hartstown, Dublin West, where overcrowding has reached crisis proportions. An excellent school, it appears to have allocated places on the basis of age. Consequently, all children under the age of four years and nine months have been told there are no places for them next September. Children must be four years of age before 31 December 2005 to get a place in September 2006, which is a new policy that parents were not told about until ten days ago or so.

The children in question include some who have older siblings in the school. Parents bought houses in the area on the expectation that their children would be accommodated. As the Minister of State knows, the other schools there are fairly full to the door. Unless the Minister addresses this situation, these children will have no places in September. St. Ciaran's is the most overcrowded school in Dublin 15. Of its 24 classes, 19 have 30 or more pupils, which is completely unacceptable and a damning indictment of the Minister's failure. She must take responsibility for the considerable distress caused to teachers, parents, the principal and the whole community.

Last night, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Science, Deputy de Valera, singled me out for "trying to create panic over this matter". She continued: "This is despite having been told of these plans time and again by the Minister, Deputy Hanafin. It may be colourful and headline grabbing...". I do not know whether the Minister of State has ever had the opportunity to set foot in Dublin 15 or if she knows that a ground-hog day of sorts occurred when school after school turned away hundreds of pupils. Like me, the Minister of State, Deputy Brian Lenihan, is probably worn out by firefighting exercises to try to get extra places. I resent the cheap shot remarks that tried to blame this problem on the Opposition. The Government has been in office for nine years but has sat on its hands and done practically nothing to address the crisis.

A feature of St. Ciaran's and other schools is the large number of international children catered for, particularly in junior classes. Many immigrants settling in west Dublin have children of primary school age, the majority of whom need intensive language support. As such, the pressure on schools to cater for Irish children and the special needs of international children is enormous. To date, it has been the dedication of principals, teachers and parents that has enabled schools to cope. However, they cannot continue without significant additional resources. While welcome, the Minister's promise of a couple of extra schools in recent years is too little, too late.

I have repeatedly made positive proposals for a long-term solution to these ongoing crises, including a round table conference with all of the interested parties, a proper assessment of needs in line with expected new housing during the next five to ten years and the immediate purchase of sites for housing in Dublin 15. Currently, the Government only seems to serve the interests of the developers and their cronies. I have a list of this week's Dublin 15 planning applications to Fingal County Council, which includes applications for no fewer than eight prefab classrooms in two schools under intense pressure. This says everything about the Fianna Fáil Government. Despite 15,000 extra houses in Dublin 15, the only solution is the old sticking plaster approach of prefabs — so much for the Celtic tiger and the hard-working parents being tortured by the Government in this regard.

See this speech in context