Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic. I have had it tabled for a good few weeks and I really appreciate it. I am disappointed the Minister for Education and Skills is not here but I appreciate that the Minister for State, Deputy Cannon, is here so he will have some understanding of what I am trying to say. All the Deputies in the constituency of Kildare North have been fully supportive of the proposals put forward by the Maynooth Schools Group. I met the group last night so what I am telling the Minister of State is fairly fresh. My personal interest is that I was a former teacher in Maynooth post-primary school. I was lucky enough to be there for a year so I could see at first hand the benefit of a "one school for one town" philosophy. In his interim report to County Kildare VEC, Dr. Gerry Jeffers states that "Maynooth has been an exemplar of inclusive co­educational, multidenominational schooling". I believe this is due to the elusive achievement of having one school for all pupils, which so many towns in Ireland would strive to reach. However, what the Department and Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board have proposed is to strip away all that Maynooth has achieved and create a divided community.

The community of Maynooth is central to this debate. The community was led to believe that the existing policy of "one school for one town" would be maintained and that the new campus would house all students attending Maynooth post-primary school. The news that two separate schools were to be established has been met with dismay, anger and concern about the future of the town. According to Dr. Jeffers's report:

The strongest single theme emanating from the public conversations with parents, particularly in Maynooth itself, centred on the idea of the town (population 13,617) as a unified community, in the words of a number of contributors, 'an extended village', where the single second-level school, Maynooth post-primary (current enrolment 1,175), acts as a powerful integrating force.

It is inevitable that two schools would create duplication and intra-community rivalry.

Solutions being put forward by the Maynooth Schools Group include amalgamation of the two schools, which is the key. One school board will decide the overall configuration of the facilities and an overall principal for the Maynooth post-primary school will delegate day-to-day management of its constituent parts to individual deputy principals. This is a reasonable attitude on the part of the community. The amalgamation can be on a permanent basis or on a temporary-pilot basis to be reviewed after five to six years or when the new school buildings are built.

There are real concerns on the part of parents. Only in essence is there a Maynooth Community College - there is no building and principal and there are no staff. How can sixth-class children prepare for entering second-level school in eight months when they have no idea where they will be, who their teachers will be or who their classmates will be, particularly when the prospective pupils and parents of Maynooth post-primary school are invited to attend an information meeting at the end of the month to meet teachers and hear about their subject choices?

This brings me to the new enrolment policy of Maynooth post-primary school, which is extremely worrying for many parents and pupils, particularly those who have children currently attending the school and studying through the Irish stream whose siblings are now being excluded from enrolment. I cannot understand how this is allowed to happen. The language medium through which a child learns should have no bearing on where their younger siblings attend school. If parents had been aware of this when they first opted for the Irish stream, they would surely have though twice about sending their children there.

All the community of Maynooth is asking for is that its views be understood and heard. At the moment, it believes that it is being completely excluded from the process because its views, which it thought were being taken on board, were ignored. The Minister is an inclusive Minister who is actively engaging with parents on a number of issues which affect their children, most recently that of patronage. I am asking him on behalf of a unified community of Maynooth to listen to its call for "one school for one town" and not to divide it.

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