John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. This is not sarcastic but I had received most of the reply previously and I was aware of it. To take the final paragraph first, the Minister said that in respect of meeting current demand for primary school places, the Department approved additional temporary accommodation. I acknowledge this. I am saying that despite this a significant number of people are failing to get a school place in Rathcoole. I acknowledge the steps taken by the Minister but having taken those steps children in Rathcoole are failing to get a school place.

The Minister also said what he said previously, that there would be a new school in the Saggart and Citywest area, which will be in Fortunestown. I acknowledge this but it will be of little benefit to people living in Rathcoole. By the time it is built housing developments in the Citywest area will, by and large, fill it. These are not solutions.

This is a problem not of the future but of today. Children and parents in Rathcoole are not accessing them. If families living in Rathcoole want to have their children educated in Rathcoole, they should not have to bring them to adjacent towns or villages; there should be a place for them. It is not just from the point of view of the parents, but the friends those children will make and go through life with and the various sporting bodies they will join. It is part of their community. They should be able to access a place in their own community.

The Minister gave a bit of hope when he said, "My Department is conscious that Rathcoole is an area of growing demographic demand and additional residential development and my Department is actively reviewing the potential need to establish a new primary school in Rathcoole." He has missed the boat; it is already needed. It is not for the future that it is needed. The Minister listened when I read the letter from the principal into the record. When families move into the Rathcoole area, they are not just trying to access junior infants classes; they are coming with children of different ages. It is virtually impossible to get a child of any age into the school. I urge the Minister and his officials to review the capacity in Rathcoole and not to come back and say the Fortunestown school in the Saggart and City West area is the solution because it is not. There is a deficit today and the Minister's plan for the future does not address the deficit it needs to address.

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