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

If that is the case, and we are hearing rumours that there will be additional school places in Thomond College, which is the school I went to myself, I would be delighted with that. The Educate Together school is a brand-new school that has been built. One of the people I am dealing with lives two minutes from that school but has no place, and is not even on a waiting list, as far as I know. If those two schools come back with a class each, that will solve the problem.

As I have previously stated, the rationale for having this system in place in Limerick is sound. It was originally put in place to address the issues of inequality and exclusion and to ensure equality of selection, and for most children and schools it works quite well. However, we simply cannot have a repeat of this next year. It was traumatic enough in 2019 when one child did not get a place but we can imagine what it is like when they all get 11 rejection letters. It is incredible. We can imagine that a parent opens the 11 letters but can we imagine what it is like to be that child? I encourage the Department to review the system. We know exactly how many children are coming out of primary school and we know one or two will not go on to secondary school in Limerick, so we know how many places we need.

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