Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Can the Minister give a timeframe for that? If he is saying it is the end of March, then let us make it the end of March, but deliver on it because it is causing enormous disquiet. I know a young woman in my area whose daughter will be almost six if she does not get a place this year. That young woman was ready to go back to work. She has no child care placement for her child this year and therefore will be unable to return to work due to this situation.

Other people who already have children in Holy Family national school are not even guaranteed a place in a different part of Swords. Even if they were, however, the logistics of manoeuvring that would be difficult.

We are dealing with people who have been linked to those schools intergenerationally. There is a crisis. The figures, which the parents have done with the schools, would show that it is not going to come good in the end. In the event that it does not, and the Minister's information is not accurate, is he prepared to sanction, for example, a seventh class in Holy Family, which would alleviate some of the pressure for the older children? Is he prepared to increase the pupil-teacher ratio to, for example, 30 to get us over this glitch? What other immediate solutions can be found for this crisis? Does the Minister have a date for when we could get some of those decisions?

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