Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There have been public meetings of hundreds of people who want a choice for their children. I attended one such meeting in Kilcock last week. The point is being made about having a place for every child, but parents do not want just any place. They want a choice in education. For example, there are 160 applications for 52 places. It would have been 83 or 84 places with the three streams, as was the case last year. It is not that there is a shortage of children.

When it comes to cultural diversity and Irish being the country's first language, it is extraordinary that so many children will be denied their first-choice places next year, 100 years after the Easter Rising. I do not understand the Department's resistance. From my experience with my children in the early 1980s when Irish schools started to become established in north Kildare, the schools were fought all the way by the Department in terms of recognition and buildings. Now, parents are queuing to get their children into successful schools, but they are not being given the choice. This issue must be taken seriously. It is not just a question of denominational choice, but of cultural choice.

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