Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I know the Minister of State is only taking this Topical Issue on behalf of the Minister for Education. In the written response he has provided - I am blessed with power reading - it states, "Fermoy was one area surveyed in 2012 and 2013 under the patronage divestment process where there was sufficient parental demand to support changes in school patronage." The response further states, "... there is no demographic imperative to establish new schools". We all have the constituency dashboards. We know exactly how many kids in each area have autism, the age demographics, how they travel to school and what religion they are. The information is there so I cannot understand why there is no demographic imperative to establish a new school. Later in the Minister of State's written response, it states:

As the Deputy will appreciate, the provision of school places, including for children with special educational needs, is a priority for the Department of Education and the NCSE and the Department will continue to work to ensure that there are sufficient special classes available to meet the needs of pupils in the Fermoy school planning area and across County Cork.

How is the Minister going to make sure there are sufficient places when the principal of the school, every single parent and some grandparents who have contacted me from the school are saying the demand is there? They are in a building that is already occupied by the ETB yet the Department states it will facilitate everything. The school has gone from roughly 87 to 104, I think, in demand, not including the autism class, because they cannot get it. The demographic imperative is that the demand is there. I appeal to the Department of Education to get the finger out and go back and access our constituency dashboards. The information is there from the census that the demand is there. Parents and grandparents are telling the Department that the demand is there, as is the principal. The building is already there yet the Department states it will do everything it can to support it. I had a response from the Minister's office which basically said they were told to only have X amount of pupils but if the demand is there, it is the duty of the Department to provide that service. Why does it not do it?

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