Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, for coming to the House to take this Topical Issue matter on how we will expand our school capacity to accommodate Ukrainian students coming to Ireland.

The suffering and destruction we are witnesses in Ukraine is devastating. I am sure the Minister will share my condemnation of the Russian regime and the horrific war crimes that we are witnessing in the Ukraine at Russia's hands. I welcome all of the Ukrainian people who have come to Ireland and I hope they will feel safe and secure here. As a Government, I am confident that we will do our absolute best to ensure that.

The majority of the people who have come to Ireland from Ukraine thus far are women and children. It is clear that our school system will be under a great deal of pressure to accommodate both existing students and young people coming here from the Ukraine. Within my own constituency, work is ongoing to situate a number of Ukrainian children who are now living in Dublin Mid-West, some with host families and others in hotels. I am also contacted regularly by constituents who are struggling to find a school place in the area for their child, which meets their needs. This capacity issue is particularly apparent in our secondary schools.

I foresee a significant capacity issue in my own constituency in terms of trying to situate existing students and incoming Ukrainian students into what is an already over-subscribed system. I am sure this is not an issue unique to Dublin Mid-West, but rather one that is being replicated across the country in many schools. An issue that some education welfare officers have raised with me and my office is that they do not have visibility on available school places when trying to place a child when he or she has been refused a place in a preferred school. Is there in existence a centralised Department register that could aid in providing that information bridge between Tusla and the Department? The introduction of some sort of register that would provide visibility for education welfare officers would be a really practical measure to upgrade our systems.

We are in an absolutely unforeseen, unique situation. We simply must welcome Ukrainian students while also accommodating existing students. It is possible for us to do that, but I would be lying if I said I was not concerned about how we will manage that. It is a huge challenge. I would be grateful if the Minister could outline the work that her Department is undertaking to expand our school capacity to accommodate Ukrainian students who are fleeing war. I would welcome an update on how many Ukrainian students have already been placed in schools here, how many are waiting to be placed and how we will ensure that existing students who are waiting on news of a secondary school place for September will be accommodated. Many parents are contacting me and they are really distressed because their son or daughter is at a particular point on a waiting list. As we all know, it is not until close to the summer that those who have accepted numerous school places will commit to one school placement, thus freeing up places elsewhere. This leads to a huge amount of stress on the part of parents and students. That stress will be added to this year.

Why can we not have a central registration system for second level schools?

See this speech in context