Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I understand the Deputy is going to sit down with the senior official dealing with this area. I am very happy that will take place. The Department has to work on the basis of catchments and identify whether there are available places within that catchment that are within reasonable reach of pupils. That is the approach that has been taken. There does not seem to be an overall capacity shortage within these catchments according to the assessment done by the Department. That does not mean that an individual pupil will always get the school they want. I am happy to facilitate a meeting with the Deputy and to work through some of those examples to see the origin of the problems that are arising. I have to admit that even in my area, one finds people who cannot get the school they want and there is frustration at that, even in a well-planned area. The school people want will not always be facilitated by this approach in every place. However, we have demands in every part of the country. We need to accommodate 20,000 additional pupils every year. To make sure that we can meet that, we have to have a sort of systematic approach that applies uniformly. Maybe we can discuss it further.

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