Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister and I welcome his reply. He represents the same constituency as me and therefore is fully aware of all the issues involved. I welcome the reforms the Minister is bringing to the schools admission process. They have been received well in general in the constituency and in the country, as has the advanced schools buildings programme. However, the Minister will have received the same correspondence I have been getting from parents who are thinking about deferring sending their children to school to September 2014. Some have moved to baptise their children in a matter of weeks simply to try to get them moved up the lists. Others have had to go to family members to try to help with moving to pay for private education because they cannot get into a local State school.

The Minister rightly identified some of the schools where there are problems, including St. Mary's national school on Belmont Avenue. Is there a possibility that we could have an extra classroom in the new Shellybanks Educate Together school for September 2014? Is there any possibility of using a site, for example, a site on Harcourt Terrace, that could be expanded on a temporary basis? Could property be leased? Furthermore, in terms of the possible solutions, to what extent are the schools and, through the school boards, the parents, being informed of all the efforts the Minister is making to try to resolve the situation? As each week moves on, parents become more frantic about it.

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