Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

In spring during the run-up to the teacher unions' conferences and the general election, the Minister for Education and Science announced to a media fanfare that a primary school, under the patronage of the VEC, would be built for Diswellstown, Castleknock, Dublin 15. The Minister's decision was seen as an overdue response to the large number of children seeking primary school places, a consequence of the thousands of new homes built in the area and the failure of the Department of Education and Science to build a sufficient number of primary schools to meet demand. Despite her promises and the general welcome by Dublin county VEC to the proposal, it never happened. Why did the Minister run away from her promise, a belated response to a dreadful school places crisis facing parents and children? Instead, the community of Dublin 15 had an awful summer as parents jostled frantically to secure places for their children in the nearest primary school. Frantic parents and stressed children face the same situation this year.

The Minister's emergency last minute response of begging the Catholic Church to act as patron for two years or more of a new Catholic primary school, Scoil Colm, has had a predictable outcome. Scoil Colm is perceived as a school for "others", children of non-Irish parents, and is one of several primary schools in Dublin 15 where there are few or no children of Irish parents. When the children are bussed out in the morning one can see that this is a school for immigrant children. Has the Minister abandoned the VEC-patroned school for Diswellstown that she had promised? Does she have a site and has she discussed the proposal formally with the County Dublin VEC? Her inaction and cowardice in this area are leading to the development of segregated schools for non-Irish and Irish-born children of foreign immigrants. One set of parents is being pitted against another.

The Government states repeatedly that it wishes to avoid ghettoisation. Segregated schooling is the quickest route to building ghettoes. Is that the Minister's intention? Fingal County Council recently announced, as requested by the Minister, a programme of school building for Dublin 15 and Fingal. Has the Minister secured the funding for this from the Minister for Finance or is this more pie in the sky? Is the promised Diswellstown school included in this plan or has the project been dropped, as I suspect?

The Minister needs to come out of hiding and honestly address these difficult and complex issues. I have called for a new national convention on education to address the question of who will be the patrons of new schools in new areas with diverse communities, and how we provide for a different ethos, religion or other delicate issue. We want the Minister to face up to the management of primary schools in a changing Ireland. We want identified enrolment policies in primary schools that will make them inclusive rather than ghettoised. Does domestic and EU equality legislation apply in this environment and how will the Department address these issues?

School sites should be acquired when permission is granted for the building of thousands of houses and apartments. The Department should face up to its responsibilities from the day planning permission is granted, not ten years after the homes have been built and occupied. This has been the style of this Government, which puts the interests of its friends in the construction industry ahead of those of parents and children.

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