Aodhán Ó Ríordáin (Dublin Bay North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much appreciate the Minister's attendance and it demonstrates her commitment to this debate. The school development area in my constituency is known as Killester Raheny Clontarf. People familiar with north Dublin know the borders as the Malahide Road, the coast and the Oscar Traynor and Kilbarrack roads. Within the area there are approximately seven second level schools, all of which have religious ethos, four of which are all-girls schools and one of which is an all-boys school. There are two that are mixed, with one having a Church of Ireland ethos and the other having a Catholic ethos.

Parents in my constituency are saying there is not a school for them if the children want to attend an Educate Together school, for example, or if they want to choose a non-denominational or multi-denominational school for their children. They do not have one. On the border, on the Malahide Road, there are two other second level schools in Ardscoil Rís and Chanel College, Coolock, which are also all-boys schools. The Minister knows the Department has not given sanction to any new single-gender school since 1998 and it is not the Department's policy to do so. The Department has indicated to the campaign group that the group should engage with each of these schools to see if they are willing, able or at a point in their development of changing their ethos. That is unlikely to happen and it puts the onus back on volunteers to engage with schools, who have enough on their plates without having such a major conversation in the short term.

To be honest, I have had this conversation with the Minister's predecessor about another part of my constituency. The initial response from the Department was that the demographics did not justify a new school, but that is where we ended up and it is why there is a second level Educate Together school now in the northern fringe area, as sanctioned by the Department. Will the Department sanction and recognise a new second level Educate Together school in this area? The area's demographics have changed and there are a large number of new young families in the area. My office has never had the number of requests for school places at second level as it has had in recent months. It is now a major issue locally for families trying to access second level places.

Seven schools are listed in the area and many of them are difficult to get into in the first instance. One of them has a wider remit or mandate in that it is of Church of Ireland ethos and it accepts children from right across the north side of the city. Living within the catchment area does not necessarily give access to that school and it has a wider remit. We are therefore reduced to six schools, with four being all-girls schools and one being an all-boys school.

We must allow a continuum of education with a multi-denominational ethos and parents in the area are very anxious to move to a position where such a choice can be available to them. They should not be forced to send their children to a second level school under an ethos with which they are not comfortable. All these schools correctly say they do everything possible to facilitate children of all backgrounds, but what is best for the children I speak to is a new school with a multi-denominational ethos. It would afford them the choice of having a continuum of education in the manner that best fits their own belief system.

See this speech in context