Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will be aware from the common application process that we knew exactly how many children were going to be in need of school places in September. Unfortunately, there are children who received 11 rejection letters in February and they have absolutely no idea what school they are going to or if they are going to a school at all. Their peers and friends are excited about going to secondary school, as the Minister can imagine, given she is a teacher herself and knows exactly how it works. These people cannot even tell their friends, and some of the parents have not told the children yet that they have 11 rejection letters. They are telling them it was just a mistake and that it will be sorted out because they do not want to tell a 12-year-old child that there is no place for them at the moment.

I appreciate the Department is working behind the scenes to resolve the matter but the families are very stressed and they need clarity as to what is going on. As I said, they are in limbo. They have been told to hang on and that everything will be fine, but these families need more than that. They need some sort of clarity as to whether they will have a place in September for their children. More than 26 children have no place at the moment.

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