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

I thank the Minister for his remarks and would be interested to know the names of the three schools to which he referred in his response. I have been informed that approximately 27 of the applicants on the waiting list for the Holy Family junior national school were born in November or December of 2012, 14 of whom have siblings in the school. The Minister knows Swords well. If a parent is travelling from River Valley to St. Cronan's, Swords Educate Together or even to Scoil an Duinnínigh and has already deposited one child in a school in River Valley, it is not possible or acceptable to expect that parent to drive another child to a different school for the same start time, or within 15 minutes, because some of the school start times are staggered, to be fair. It is not acceptable to expect parents to cross the town of Swords, which has a population of 50,000 and a substandard internal road infrastructure.

My issue is not with the Minister but with the forward planning unit in his Department. My issue stems from the fact that these problems can be foreseen. If we were planning Swords tomorrow we would not build the schools in their current locations but we must work with what we have. The local authority delivered a plan a number of years ago on the development of Swords, entitled Swords 2035, which envisages a doubling of the population to 100,000. The census 2016 results will be published in a week or two and I am sure they will show a significant increase in the population of the town. Metro north will be delivered in seven or eight years which will free up lands in the Lissenhall area of north-east Swords for as much as 10,000 units. I am sorry to say that I do not believe that the Department can make an assessment at this particular moment in time that there are sufficient numbers of junior infant places. Unfortunately I do not have time to refer to the likes of Rivermeade national school, which is 4 km from the town and has two empty classrooms. That school is crying out for students. There are so many issues in the community that I believe are not being addressed adequately.

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