Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

The Deputy is right. I have a note here. I am only going to read this bit out to show how frustrating what we receive sometimes is. The note is saying that for 2025, it is estimated that there are around 4,200 first year places available in County Kildare, with 3,794 sixth class pupils in the area, and on this basis the officials estimate a surplus capacity of around 400 places. Whoever wrote that note in the Department of Education and Youth could not be further from living in the real world. That is not the reality we experience in our constituencies in commuter land. It might work on a spreadsheet - there are this many places and this many children. It does not factor in what the Deputy referred to, parental choice and ethos.

A parent is the primary educator of their child. A parent has the right to decide the type of ethos they want in a school. We should not have any homogeneous view on that; it is about the parent's choice. As the Deputy said, we can also have a whole variety of different mixtures of schools and differences in population. What the Minister, Deputy McEntee, was trying to do, and I thank the Deputy for acknowledging her work on this, is a reform that he and I welcome. There is a reason it is done on a pilot basis, and it is the very reason Deputy Whitmore and I have seen in Greystones where, quite frankly, there have been real issues with it as well. It is a good idea, and we can see why it was run on a pilot basis. It is so we can actually get the roll-out of this correct. The Deputy has obviously seen that in Celbridge. We have seen it in Athenry, Clonakilty, Greystones and Tullamore. We do need to get to this system. The Government is very committed. The new Minister for education committed to building on the work of the previous Minister, Deputy McEntee, as well.

We have seen and will see a very significant increase in capital funding for education. In fairness to Department of education officials, the Minister for education and successive Ministers - the Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is in the Chamber - there have been real demographic pressures and challenges, including trying to quite rightly meet the needs of people with additional educational needs. The Minister of State, Deputy Moynihan, is doing excellent work on that too. We will see a very significant increase in capital funding for the Department of education.

However, the Department and the Government have to listen very carefully to communities on this too. We can have all the offices and all the spreadsheets we want but, generally, the local school principal will not be out too far. We should not have to have a battle every year to convince the school principal that he or she is wrong only then to admit a couple of weeks later that, actually, maybe the school principal was right. It does cause too much stress. I join the Deputy in acknowledging the work of school principals - the likes of Ms McCauley, Mr. Nevin and others across the country.

Demographics cannot be seen as one kind of homogeneous thing right across the country. There are certain parts of our country where there are specific demographic pressures and bulges. The Deputy represents one such county; I represent another. We are absolutely committed to working with the Deputy on this. We are committed to learning the lessons of the pilot and how we can actually get that to the place we all want to get it to. I will ask that the Minister for education work closely with the Deputy in relation to the specific school projects he mentioned today.

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