Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)

I congratulate Deputy Connick on his new position. I hope he will spend much time looking after those fishing issues in Donegal and off the coast.

This is a major issue. For the first occasion during my time in politics, there is a school that is full – with 45 pupils that have nowhere to go. One might say that while this had happened in the past, there was capacity in other schools on the periphery. However, there is now no longer such capacity in those other schools.

This has meant that the schools have had to draw lots for students in the catchment area. It is a very unfair position that children find themselves in. In one situation where there were two students to attend a community school, three miles away, one child's name was drawn in the lottery and the other was not. The lottery was held in the presence of a garda, on behalf of the community school, so that everything was seen to be above board.

This is a crazy scenario, but I do not want to get into the history of it. The children from another school, Ballygarrett, traditionally went on to Gorey community school. There is a strong tradition of music in the school, which is not available in Kilmuckridge which is within the Ballygarrett catchment area. The number of children due to come from the primary schools was known and it was foreseen that the difficulty would first arise in September 2010. I ask that capacity be made available on the grounds of Gorey Community School. I appreciate Deputy Browne's remark that there is a premises available, but it is some distance away across a car park.

The school management, the Department and everybody involved must get together to make the accommodation available. It will only be required for the short term. The outline planning permission for the new second level school has been granted and the local authority has compulsorily purchased a portion of land to provide the access route from the relief road in Gorey for the new school. The solution, of course, is the new second level school but there is a difficulty for September 2010 and potentially for September 2011 in ensuring the children are not discommoded.

I thank Deputy Browne for sharing time. I have spoken to other Deputies from the constituency and we are due to meet the Minister. She has given a tentative date of Thursday morning for that meeting, if that is possible. Hopefully, we will be able to put our views directly to her also.

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