Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Island living has not been easy throughout the Covid crisis. With eight great islands in west Cork, every effort must be made to keep young families living there. Sherkin Island national school closed its doors in June 2016. For four years it has been trying to secure adequate access to education for the island's children. Its successes over these four years have been hard won. It has secured additional ferries for primary school children, the departure and arrival times of which line up with school times. It is hard to believe it has taken four years to achieve this. However, there is still a way to go to have mainland equality when it comes to access to education for island children.

Deputy McHugh is the Minister for Education and Skills. There are many emotional and physical aspects to this situation, which I will attempt to lay out for the House. The main barrier is the cost of sending a child to school from the island, in this case Sherkin Island. The maximum a family on the mainland pays for access to primary education for a family, irrespective of the number of children, is €220 per term. Island families are paying this sum in a two-week period, increasing with the number of children. There is a clear discrimination between access to education from an island and from the mainland. The primary school in Sherkin Island closed, yet there are four children from the island in the local mainland school, with a further six children to do likewise in the coming years. This type of financial burden on island families in the current climate may ultimately result in them moving off the island. The islands are in real danger of losing their families. If they are to survive, this needs to be rectified with immediate effect. Will the Minister rectify this clear anomaly in regard to access to education for an island child in comparison with a child from the mainland?

In west Cork, some leaving certificate students appear to have fallen through a crack in the predicted grades system, namely, students who want to study medicine next year and require a third language to get a placement in a course but did not study a language at leaving certificate level but chose to learn French through home tuition. Many of these students had studied French up to fourth year, with some having achieved a B grade at higher level in the junior certificate, and so they were confident in their ability to achieve a pass in ordinary level at leaving certificate level. However, as they are self-taught and they have no teacher to award them a predicted grade, all of their work may have been for nothing if they are to sit a written examination, whenever that becomes a possibility, and they will miss out on a year of university due to a fault in the system. Can anything be done for these young people who have had the initiative to teach themselves?

The parents of secondary school-going children in Bandon are sick to the teeth of promises, many of which have been badly broken down through the years. Only a few months ago, they were told to educate their children in Cork city as there were no placements in Bandon in September. Another announcement has been made in regard to the construction of 19 general classrooms, three science laboratories, five special education teaching, SET, rooms, two prep areas, an art room, a textile room, a home economics room and two mainstream classrooms in an already overcrowded area in St. Brogan's. When will the shovel turn on this project and when will the new school open? What are the plans of the Department of Education of Skills for Bandon schoolgoing children this year and next year?

I welcome the Minister's announcement that the July provision will go ahead next year. It is welcome news.

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