James O'Connor (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

I appreciate the opportunity to raise this important matter regarding my constituency. It is about Kilcredan National School, which is located in the peripheral regions of Youghal and Midleton towns. It is a rural school but it is also a very large school. It came about because of the merger of three existing primary schools in that parish into one. Although it was a very good idea and the school is excellent, run by a brilliant team of people, they have come under huge pressure in recent years from the Department of Education’s transport policy on school bus transport, as a consequence of the village of Ladysbridge being a distance further from Kilcredan, which is the school of its parish, than Castlemartyr and Ballintotis national schools in the periphery. We have been having a Siege of Ennis-style situation where there is a dance every September and a panic, and we are having to bang down the doors of the Department of Education to try to deal with the situation. It is mercifully unfair on the parents and the children involved.

Ireland has changed completely in the past 40 years. Most households now are lucky to have somebody at home at all. Having an adequate bus transport system in place for kids in those areas is a really important part of the fabric of rural Ireland.

I am not happy, as a TD representing the people affected by this - those who have children attending Kilcredan, the children themselves and the school - who are all put in a very difficult position every year. What I am asking for, and I do not think it is an unfair ask, is in regard to locations that have gone through the process of amalgamation, where the school is of its parish boundaries and it is what the parents, the board of management and the local community and area want. That has never not been raised with with me as a TD representing them. They want to have it reflected by the Department of Education, that is, that it is the school of that community, of the Fr. O’Neill's, Ladysbridge and Ballymacoda catchment area and that Kilcredan is their school of which they are very proud. Some of the great hurlers, such as Ger Millerick and Declan Dalton, who played on the Cork team at the weekend come from Kilcredan. There is a very strong, proud sporting tradition in the school.

It is very discriminatory what the Department is doing with the distance boundaries. In rural Ireland, people are very precious about where they come from, and rightly so. It is a nice part of the country that we live in. What I am asking for is that the Department of Education have some bit of compassion for a school community, which is among three schools that have been merged into one, and have some recognition of that. As I said, each September we are back in the same position and are negotiating for weeks. It is a complete waste of time and, ultimately, all it requires is the stroke of a pen. That is what bothers me most about it. As a TD, I do not like having to go back to those parents, trying to scrape around for updates from the Department, putting everybody under pressure when it could all be done very easily if it were raised at this time of the year.

I would deeply appreciate it if the Minister of State could bring my points back to the Department. I am grateful to him for being here to listen to me this morning. I know that parents and children in that community would appreciate this matter being raised as a matter of urgency.

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