Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Acting Chairman to convey my thanks to the Ceann Comhairle for choosing this issue because it is extremely urgent. While I am sorry the Minister herself cannot be present, she spoke to me earlier and is aware of the issue, which in a nutshell is the absence of permanent sites for the four schools that are planned for what still is Dublin South, although it eventually will become Dublin Rathdown. I acknowledge that finding a location for a school is difficult even at the best of times, when the population was not rapidly expanding, when nearly all schools were faith-based and a set procedure was in place that everybody understood and to which they subscribed. The population is now expanding rapidly, we are moving to a new, more varied patronage system and we have a new catchment area basis for pupil selection. There will be problems in this regard and there are additional problems in Dublin South because there is a huge land shortage and what land there is is extremely expensive.

While I am aware this is a problem, from the perspectives of school management and parents, not knowing where the schools will be located is most unsatisfactory. Parents everywhere need to know where their kids are going to school. These are long-term decisions in that it is eight years for primary school and another six years for secondary school and parents must be able to make decisions on how their kids will be transported to school. Major decisions made by families are influenced by the location of schools. They influence job opportunities for the parents and where one buys one's house, not to mention the quality of life issues for children who, if they cannot go to school where they live, may be put into schools remote from home and perhaps condemned to sitting in traffic jams for a good portion of the day over the next 14 years. It really is an important issue to know or to have clarity about where one's kids will go to school.

Two of the schools are primary schools that already have been in existence for three or four years and five years, respectively. One is in Stepaside, the other is in Ballinteer and the school in Stepaside has been in two temporary locations since it was set up. I need not explain how unsatisfactory this is from the point of view of the school and the parents. It is difficult for the school to plan ahead or to attract pupils and it jeopardises the school's viability if nobody knows where it will be located. A post-primary school is planned and thank goodness it is, because it is really badly needed. It is even more pressing because it is due to start in 2016 and neither a temporary nor a permanent location has been identified yet. Obviously, any sensible parents will be making decisions about where their children are to go to school, if they have not already long since made them. It offered hope that they could go to school in the constituency but now they are being put into schools far from home and this really is jeopardising the long-term prospects for the school. I appreciate that a secondary school takes a fair amount of land but this issue must be put to bed for parents in order that they can plan where their children will attend school.

As for the fourth school, briefly I appreciate the Department has only recognised the need for it in the last couple of months. While it is to meet the serious needs in the Stillorgan-Goatstown area, I can tell the Minister of State parents are absolutely frantic to know where that school will be located. Even though parents are told a school will be provided, unless they see physical evidence that a site has been identified, they cannot have any faith that it will turn up and this jeopardises the school, as parents will search elsewhere for locations. Consequently, I would appreciate it were the Minister of State to bring clarity at least about some of these schools.

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