Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Gabhaim buíochas as an deis chun an t-ábhar seo a ardú inniu. Is ábhar an-tábhachtach é do go leor tuismitheoirí i gCill Dhéagláin i Contae na Mí, mo Dháilcheantar féin. Tá a lán daoine buartha faoi seo. Tá páistí ag dul ar scoil lasmuigh de Chill Dhéagláin agus lasmuigh de Chontae na Mí, uaireanta i mBaile Átha Cliath. Táim ag impí ar an Rialtas agus ar an Roinn le blianta bunscoil nua a chur ar fáil i gCill Dhéagláin toisc go bhfuil an t-éileamh ann.

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise primary school provision in Ashbourne again. I have raised it previously in parliamentary questions and in the education committee. The population of Ashbourne continues to grow. At the end of the recession, house building was starting in Ashbourne when it was not happening in other places. We are beginning to pay the educational price now. There is simply not enough room for all the children who require primary school places in Ashbourne. Over the last number of years, as people moved to Ashbourne, inquired about schools and found there were no places, some of their children continued to go to the school they attended previously, perhaps in Dublin. In one case the school is in Bray and in another it is Drogheda. In other cases they attend schools in the countryside outside Ashbourne. The Department of Education and Skills helpfully provides a list of alternative schools, but one of them is 22 km from Ashbourne. That is unacceptable and should not be suggested to parents.

Children are entitled to exercise their constitutional right to primary education. It is an important constitutional right. They are entitled to have that education in their local area among their friends in the excellent community in Ashbourne and in association with the sports clubs, drama groups, scouts, guides and other groups for young people in the area. Children should go to school with their peers in their local area, and that entitlement is not being satisfied in Ashbourne at present.

Last year, there was an attempt to bang heads together to find out whether extra places could be extracted from local primary schools. Not much emerged from that. However, the queries still come to my office and I am sure to the offices of other Members about where there might be school places. The Minister has organised a meeting with the school principals at the end of this month in Ashbourne. I welcome that insofar as it goes and I am happy to attend it on foot of the Minister's invitation, but it is not the job of the local principals to provide places if there are no places. That is the job of the Department of Education and Skills. The Minister's colleague, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, announced yesterday that the Department is open to providing a new school. I would prefer if the Department was actually opening a new school. It is always open to opening a school, but the question is whether it will open one in Ashbourne next September. I do not know what the purpose of the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty's, statement was because it was not an announcement but simply restated the obvious.

We seek something concrete. We want places for children. I invite the Minister to visit Ashbourne - his party colleagues have probably already invited him - to see the housing development, visit the excellent schools and meet some of the parents involved in this campaign. They have set up an online petition. They have visited my office and I am sure they have visited the offices of other politicians. They are worried and desperate. I could raise all sorts of school issues in my constituency, such as Lismullen, O'Carolan College in Nobber, Dunboyne and a list of schools that need building work, but this case involves children who may not have a place in their home town.

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