Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I agree that we need to have a meeting with the Minister as a matter of extreme urgency. The Minister of State has said that it might not be possible for children to go to their first-choice school. Deputy Ryan and I have outlined that they might not be able to go to any school. As Skerries is a school planning area of its own, they will go to the bottom of the list in neighbouring schools. The children in the catchment areas of those schools will be accommodated before the children of Skerries. The suggestions for dealing with the school accommodation crisis that have been made by the Minister of State will do no more than alleviate the current pressure. We need proper facilities and additional capacity to cope with the waiting list. We have already outlined that the children who are on the waiting list cannot be accommodated in the other schools because there is no space for them. It is not a case of saying that children cannot have their first-choice schools. The fact is that they might not have any school at all.

What is needed is additional accommodation that will provide additional capacity, rather than merely alleviate the pressure on the school.

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