Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Bruton, for his presence. The Minister will be fully aware that I have been consistently raising the issue of enrolment at Swords primary schools with the Minister and his Department officials for several months.

I understand that in January the Department provided the local authority with a comprehensive report on the availability of space for the coming year. Regrettably, it has been found that once enrolment was complete in those schools, there were excessive applications in the hundreds throughout the community of Swords. The list provided by the Department included schools that I consider to be on the periphery of Swords and that do not cater for the areas specifically suffering from excessive enrolment numbers. I offer some examples. In Holy Family junior national school, the figure is 107. In Holywell Educate Together national school the list is described as lengthy. In Thornleigh Educate Together national school the number is 25. In Swords Educate Together national school the number is 145. In St. Cronan's junior national school the number is 45. In Scoil an Duinnínigh the number is 30. In Gaelscoil Bhrian Bóroimhe the number is 40. Those are the numbers of people on the waiting lists for enrolment this September.

In the main, these children are four or five years of age. The remainder is made up of those meeting lower enrolment criteria, such as those living outside the catchment area. We should bear in mind that they could be resident in Swords but not be in the catchment area of the school in question.

We also have considerable enlargement of the community in Swords. For example, yesterday, in a welcome announcement, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government adverted to €20 million of infrastructural investment to free up development lands. A total of €5 million of this figure is for north-west Swords. This will deliver in the region of 3,000 properties in the coming five to seven years or thereabouts. A third of these will be social and affordable properties.

The head-room figures for Swords were provided to me by Fingal County Council planning department this morning. I am grateful to the council for the figures. The head-room figure for the end of the current development plan, which runs up to 2025, is 10,000 units. I realise the Department has ceased making the mistake of assuming that when a house is built, a couple move in and then four or five years later a classroom requirement arises. We learned that lesson in 2008, when 80 children showed up to a school in Balbriggan with bags, uniforms and books but no classroom space. However, the reality of the situation is that it does not appear the Department has adequately catered for educational demand in Swords. As a resident of the town for 13 years I was rather disappointed to learn this, especially having received assurances in writing from the Department in January this year. One particular school was in contact with me early on. I am referring to the Holy Family junior national school. The school has an extraordinary figure of 107 children on the waiting list. As far as I can determine, only 27 of those children have yet to reach the age of five years. The rest are of school-going age in my mind but have no place at the moment. There may well be duplication on these lists but I do not believe that all the 300 children or thereabouts that I have listed represent duplicates, nor do I believe that they are from outside the catchment areas or they would not have been accepted onto the school waiting lists in the first instance.

The Minister represents part of the county of Fingal. I imagine, therefore, he is aware that it is the fastest growing constituency in Europe and it has the youngest population in Ireland. Yesterday, the announcement was made on additional funding to free up development lands. I urge the Minister to give the River Valley community in particular serious consideration for funding. This is now at crisis point. Many parents in the community have been in touch with me. They simply have no option.

See this speech in context