Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Leaving aside the Bill, I want to mention how the Government is dealing with Opposition legislation. As far as I know, not a single Opposition Bill has been accepted without some amendment by the Government. So many good Bills have come before the Dáil since the Government was formed. What is happening speaks to me of an Administration that is not willing to listen to the Opposition, for all it might say otherwise. It is a very common strategy of the Taoiseach to criticise people whom he believes are not working with him or not being constructive but the Government needs to consider how it works with the Opposition when it introduces useful legislation. Its legislation is voted down or, as happens quite frequently, a rider is attached and it is kicked down the road for 12 months or subjected to some process whereby it is never really meant to be seen again. This approach is not unique to the Minister. In fact, the Bill before us is the first education legislation that has come to a vote this session. This is an issue for the Government as whole. What is happening is not good enough. There will be more legislation introduced, again containing good ideas, and I do not want to see it needlessly refused or delayed on the basis of a partisan point of view or, as is evident sometimes, the Government's desire to take credit for all the good things that come through this House. That should not be the way.

We are supporting this legislation. I commend Deputy Ó Ríordáin on summarising this correctly. It is very useful legislation. It is legislation that I would rather were not necessary. It was first proposed as an amendment to the Education (Admission to Schools Act), such as it is, which started out about four years ago. In fairness to the current Minister, she was not involved in it. It is difficult to comprehend why the former Minister, Deputy Bruton, took the attitude he did. There is no logical reason to have a number of places set aside for potential students who had a father, grandfather, mother or grandmother in a school. There are very logical and practical reasons for setting aside places for siblings but there are none for setting aside places based on parents or, much more tenuously, grandparents having attended a school. The former Minister's defence was that in the past there were no limits. Previously, there were no restrictions in any number of ways when it came to school admissions.

School admissions are uncontentious where schools are not oversubscribed but where they are, they are subject to scrutiny. Parents and, indeed, lawyers go through admissions with a fine-tooth comb and places are fought for tooth and nail. That is the reality, particularly in rapidly growing urban areas. It is an unfortunate reality. There are still parts of the State whose rapid demographic growth is such that the Department is struggling to meet demand. Admissions policies make enormous differences. Where there are restrictions of the kind in question, children who live close to or only a few doors from a school that is the natural place for them to attend – it is typically a post-primary school – are kept out by virtue of parents who were former pupils pushing successfully to have their children placed in the school, even though there is no practical reason they should go there and even though they may not live in the community.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin is correct that the old school tie does matter. It matters in this institution; we all know that. There are many backgrounds represented here with connections that do matter. They matter in business and in all walks of life. It is true that people from certain schools have more access and influence and more of a say than others. Sadly, parents decide on the schools their children should go to not only on the basis of the quality of the education there but also, and very often, on the basis of the networks that will be available to the children and the lives they will be set up for by virtue of having attended them. I could name schools, of course, but I am not going to get into that because this is an issue of policy. There is no good reason to have the artificial number set aside. The Minister said she will go away and gather evidence but there was no evidence behind what was done. There was lobbying from the fee-paying school sector to do it. Bhí siad tiomanta don áit a bhí acu sa chóras oideachais a choimeád go daingean agus go dlúth. Bhí siad ag iarraidh a chinntiú go bhfanfaidís sna scoileanna sin, go mbeidís in ann mionlaigh agus daoine ó chúlraí áirithe ar nós an Lucht Siúil a choimeád amach, agus go mbeidís in ann an stádas láidir uachtarach atá acu a choimeád. Níl sé sin ceart ar chor ar bith.

It is also the case, through this and other means, that school admissions policies are used to exclude people from minority backgrounds, particularly ethnic minorities and Travellers. Class is also a consideration. I urge the Minister to reconsider her position ahead of the vote and reconsider the Government’s philosophy on Opposition Bills. It is really not good enough. Many more good policies will come before the House and I hope the current approach will not obtain all the time.

While I have the opportunity, I want to raise two more issues relating to school admissions. School planning areas are an enormous source of frustration. School planning areas were first drawn up in 2008. They are bluntly drawn. They were never subject to public consultation and they are not subject to it now. Most people do not know what they are or the areas the take in. Some of them are extremely large and some are quite small. In many ways, they seem very abstract, considering that they are not publicly advertised. Where a school is located on the periphery of a school planning area, there are very real practical effects. I raised this before with officials in the Department and the former Minister and they said there were no plans to review it. This needs to happen. I can think of three schools in my county, two in my constituency, where people from the adjoining communities are accorded a lower admissions priority because they are just beyond an arbitrary school planning line. I am sure there are more examples. In one example, a new and growing suburb will have a school but about one third of the area in question will not have priority or be considered part of the key catchment area for the school. The affected pupils are connected to a school planning area that is connected to a town 12 km or 13 km away where they are not going to go to school. They will be lower down the food chain if the nearby school is oversubscribed, which I very much expect. Children will very likely be denied the opportunity to go to a school that is less than 1 km away. That is not good enough but it can be solved. It means that the Department needs to examine the concept of school planning areas and engage in public consultation. The areas should be drawn in a way that reflects real communities. Perhaps there should be some flexibility whereby schools could tell the Department what their natural catchment area or community is if it does not correspond with the school planning area. This should not be difficult to resolve but it should be resolved. It is causing difficulties in Cork and I expect it is causing difficulties in Dublin, Kildare and other rapidly growing urban areas. I ask the Minister to examine this.

The main school admissions issue raised in my office, not in my capacity as a justice and education spokesperson but as a constituency Deputy, concerns autism spectrum disorder, ASD, units and special schools. It is heartbreaking when parents produce 12 letters of refusal or waiting lists for places. They might have been looking for a place for three or four years before coming to us. I am aware there are efforts to increase the number of units – I have seen some evidence of this at primary level, at least, in my constituency – but they need to go a lot further. We also need many more special school places. We come across children for whom the ASD unit is just not a fit.

They need special school places.

There is a significant gap in the number of ASD units at post-primary level, particularly in my area of Cork city. It is leading to parents and SENOs scrambling. They are doing their best, but they cannot work the miracle of the loaves and fishes. If there are no places, there are no places. That leads to children being home schooled when they could be in schools and other children being in units when they should be in special schools. All in all, it leads to a great deal of trauma, difficulty and educational loss.

Regarding the specific issue of school admissions, I urge the Minister to support this legislation. There is no logical reason not to do so.

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