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

I thank the Minister and I appreciate her reply. Again, every area is different. She has said there are seven post-primary schools serving the Killester Raheny Clontarf area, but as I said, four are all-girls schools and one is of a Church of Ireland ethos and has a remit wider than the immediate area for the entirety of north Dublin. It is a particular case.

I am encouraged by the Minister's suggestion of an ongoing review. With the campaign group I will look to get as much data and information as possible in engaging with the Department. As I stated, I had a discussion in the Seanad at the time with the Minister's predecessor about the necessity for a multi-denominational school around the northern fringe.

At that time, I received a similar answer to this, which was quite negative. However, the school is now up and running. I expect the same thing to happen in this instance. I suggest to the Minister that she reconsider this request in light of the changing demographic of the area, the young families that have come into it and the fact that for those not interested in a Catholic second-level education there is no option. There are seven schools listed. Six of them are Catholic schools and the remaining one is non-Catholic but it has a wider remit across the entirety of north Dublin such that a student is not entitled to enrolment in that school on the basis that he or she lives in the immediate catchment area.

I will continue to raise this with the Minister. The campaign group and I will be compiling data to engage with the Department. This is a growing area with young families whose children are going to need second level placements. A relatively new denominational primary school is moving into Killester in September and a number of Educate Together primary schools have also opened in the area in the past number of years. It is unfair to allow children to attend a multi-denominational primary school only for them to be told in sixth class that they have no opportunity to continue in multi-denominational education up to leaving certificate level, that they have to move into a denominational situation. That is unfair to those children and their families.

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