Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I had a feeling the Minister would respond on those lines. I raised this for several reasons. First, there is a large population on the east of Kilkenny city. The Minister raised housing, which is something that I was going to bring up. The has been more development of houses there, which is very welcome and, hopefully, it will be allocated by September, but it will increase the population on that side of the city. Many children there go to primary school on that side of the city but must then travel to the other side for post-primary schooling. They do not qualify for school transport, which is an ongoing issue, because they are regarded as living within reasonable distance, although practically it is a long distance to walk. I also raise the matter as we have an excellent Educate Together primary school but no Educate Together secondary school. Parents who have chosen to educate their children in that ethos have no option to continue that at second level. There are limited co-education secondary schools and, therefore, parents who send their schools to a primary school of mixed gender rarely have the opportunity to continue this at second level.

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