Duncan Smith (Dublin Fingal, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is refreshing to stand up and respond to a debate. With some of our Private Members' business, we not only have to respond to slings and arrows thrown by Government but sometimes to slings and arrows thrown by others in opposition, but we did not have to do that today. What we have seen over the past two hours is an expression of the depth of experience and challenge we as public representatives on all sides see in our communities in primary and secondary education in particular. I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin, our education spokesperson, for bringing forward this motion today. This motion captures a lot of the work he has driven on behalf of the Labour Party, campaigns we have been running for many years. This is not a Private Members' motion for the sake of a Private Members' motion sake. This is building on work and campaigns my party is passionate about and passionate about delivering.

We all see the challenges in our communities. We see the inconsistencies in education provision and the education system. Issues include how DEIS status is ascribed to various schools. There is a town in my constituency with one secondary school and three primary schools. The secondary school has been allocated DEIS status but not one of the primary schools has been allocated it. It makes no sense given this is a town that is distinct in terms of its borders from any other town. It is not as if the primary schools are in a hinterland or a neighbouring town. They are in this one town and it does not make sense how DEIS can be ascribed to one secondary school and not one of the three primary schools.

When it comes to the division of patronage, in my own town of Swords, there can be two Educate Together primary schools but not one Educate Together secondary school. There can bee three education and training board, ETB, secondary schools but only two new ETB primary schools. It is not joined-up thinking and planning. Education is one area where we can do that. We do it in our development plans in terms of places for new school buildings and in terms of how towns will develop. We know what the population increases are going to be, yet we still cannot plan school provision. Within that, we cannot plan a fair division of school patronage and a division of school patronage that makes sense. Where there is a Gaelscoil, why is there not a Gaelcholáiste? There are people in Swords who send their children to the Gaelscoil, and for secondary school, they must go to the Gaelcholáiste in Deputy Ó Ríordáin's constituency, Gaelcholáiste Reachrann, which we visited together, or up to Balbriggan. It is not good enough.

We have all spoken about the need for new buildings. I am working with Independent Councillor Joe Newman on River Valley Community National School on whose board we sit. Not only does this school not have its own land, it does not have commitments on when it will get its new school building. It is a vibrant school for the third largest town in Ireland. It is a similar situation with Broadmeadow Community National School. This school has the land but has not got a commitment on new buildings. St. Finian's Community College is the only DEIS secondary school in Swords. You could write a saga about the lack of progress in delivering a new school building there. We are still no closer despite visits by the Minister for Housing, Heritage and Local Government and others to the school. It is deeply frustrating when great teaching bodies, parents' associations and student bodies are being let down by the failure of the Department of Education to deliver new school buildings.

This motion is not being opposed by the Government. It is being accepted and we are not naive enough to think that what we have called for will be delivered, but could the Government look at our calls? In respect of the lowering of the DEIS pupil-teacher ratio to 15:1 and the work pioneered by our visionary former Minister for Education, Niamh Bhreathnach, in the 1990s, we can deliver it and we can strive towards it. We need to do this if we are to tackle poverty and disadvantage. This is where we can do it.

We need a national autism strategy. We have been campaigning for that for a number of years and, led by Deputy Ó Ríordáin, we will continue to bring it up. All our asks here are needed and credible if we are to have an education system of which we can be truly proud and over which we can truly stand. I thank everyone for contributing to the debate. It was a good and even debate that showed the depths of the challenges we face in our education system.

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