Malcolm Byrne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister on behalf of my colleague and myself for his welcome to the House. We both look forward to engaging with him constructively on policy matters with regard to education.

I welcome his commitment and assurance that every child in Gorey and Wexford towns will be guaranteed a school place in one of those towns in 2020. That will provide some level of assurance. I appreciate that there will be difficulties but I welcome the Minister's commitment that we will get the solution for 2020. However, there remains a long-term challenge.

Looking at current projections is fine but if we continue to see young families moving into the area, in addition to the primary school enrolments, this will present a challenge. Nearly every board of management meeting in schools in the area deals with transfer requests so that is causing additional pressure. While I welcome the Minister's commitment that we will not have a problem in 2020, what I would like to hear is that there will be some sort of commitment regarding looking at 2021 or 2022 because additional school places are certainly needed in Wexford town and in the case of Gorey and north Wexford. It is very clear and certainly the schools have communicated, as have Wexford County Council along with myself and others, that we need a third second level school in the town. The Minister will appreciate the length of time it takes for that to be built, a patron appointed and so on. We really need that process to start now to ensure that this school is in place by 2021 or 2022.

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