Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

I wish to share time with the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Ciarán Cuffe.De bharr nach bhfuil ach cúig nóiméad agam, déanfaidh mé trí phointe réasúnta tapaidh.

Along with Deputy Ó Snodaigh, I have a particular interest in Gaelscoileanna. I hope the Department will consider to where a primary school pupil should go after attending a Gaelscoil. Tá easpa meánscoileanna ann. I mo cheantar fhéin, tá Gaelscoil Bhaile Brigín, Gaelscoil Ros Eo, Gaelscoil Bhrian Bóroimhe agus Gaelscoil an Duinnínigh. Dá bhrí sin, tá meánscoil ag teastáil. Tá plean ann chun gaelcholáiste - Coláiste Ghlór na Mara - a bhunú i mBaile Brigín. Tá breis is 300 dalta ar an liosta cláraithe. Bunófar an gaelcholáiste sin, le cúnamh Dé. Iarraim ar an Aire Oideachais agus Scileanna tacaíocht a thabhairt don phlean agus an gaelcholáiste a cheadú go luath.

Even before we deal with ownership and patronage, we need to iron out a few ground rules, or perhaps establish some new ones. We must make applying for a place in a primary school more straightforward for parents who are very often left in a desperate situation full of uncertainty having applied to every primary school in an area. In a growing area like my area of north county Dublin, parents might have to apply to up to eight schools and, metaphorically speaking, prostrate themselves and ask for a place for their child. They may not hear anything for months.

A parent I spoke to today heard nothing and was given no hope only to be offered three places for her child. The three principals in that case are working in splendid isolation and are, in effect, offering a place three times over.

We have a well established system for our third level institutions in the Central Applications Office. It should not be beyond our imagination and ingenuity for each town to have a standard form on which parents put schools in order of preference. The information could be processed in a straightforward and transparent way. The State would know from where applications were coming and parents would know the system was transparent.

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