David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this topic and the Minister of State, Deputy Calleary, for responding. I am disappointed the Minister will not be here. I understand she is busy. This issue arises because in the last while, my colleagues and I have received phone calls from worried parents whose prospective first-year students have no place in September. The schools in east Cork are all full, with waiting lists. I raised this a number of times and received a response from the Minister advising me of what is going to be done in the future and the kind of process that is in place to figure out the numbers that will be there. She talked about what might be the case, such as duplication of applications, schools of choice, small towns, some towns having single-sex schools, external draw, all of which is being examined.

While I pay tribute to all the principals who have worked hard, we are at a point where a number of students now have no place in September. Parents ring me. Will the Minister consider the position of a 12-year-old boy or girl who does not have a place but all their friends have places and are getting their uniforms and books, getting organised, but this person has nowhere to go? In one particular instance, a parent was asked to consider home schooling. Another parent was advised to travel 30 miles to a school. That is just not possible. The other issue is, as I have said on previous occasions, we probably need some kind of central applications system to deal with this. I know that was tried in Limerick and seemed to be in some way successful. Parents will apply to every school because they are afraid of getting no place. At the start of the year, in my area there might be a waiting list with 200 or 300 on it. This is crazy. That whittles away. We are now down to a core group of people. The principals know at this stage that they have no places. There are also people on the waiting lists who we know have places in other schools and they are holding out because they want to go to their school of choice. That is understandable but at least they have a place. I am worried about the others. Has contact been made with the schools recently? I have written to the Minister about this. Does the Minister know exactly how many have no place? What will the Department do for September? What will the Minister of State this morning tell the parents and their children, who are all listening, about this? Can a place be guaranteed for September for these young people? Will the Minister put in place for the future some form of system to avoid us being here talking about this year after year?

At this stage, east Cork needs another second-level school. Thankfully the housing situation is going well. There are many applications and hundreds of houses are being built. We have new schools, in fairness, and extensions. However, how big should a school become? Some of these schools are now heading for 1,300 students. That is very big. We are reaching the stage where we need to be planning ahead to build yet another school given the fact that the area is expanding so much.

I also suggest, if the departmental officials are listening in here, that a person being put on a waiting list is a de facto refusal, and such people should be advised of the right to appeal to the board of management. That does not happen in every case. They should also be advised of the right after that, if they still do not have a place, to appeal to the Department under section 29 and that is not being done. If that is not being done within a certain period, they may also run the risk of losing the right to school transport. That also has to be done.

Principals should be mandated by the Department to advise parents of their right where, if they are put on a waiting list, that it is a de facto refusal as there is not a place at that time and that they also have a right to appeal.

I furthermore believe that we should have a central application system, either locally or nationally, whereby someone who accepts a place in a school is taken off every other list.

See this speech in context