Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I thank the Minister for coming to the House. This time last year, I rose in the House to express the devastation which was felt by my constituents in Kilbarrack's Foxfield-St. John's parish and east Kilbarrack in particular at the closure of Greendale community school. Without any consultation, the trustees, namely, the Jesuit Order, Holy Faith Order and the vocational education committee, decided or advised the Department of Education and Science on a closure. The staff, principal, parents, students and the local community of Kilbarrack were devastated, especially given the school's very impressive history since 1975 and from its peak enrolment of almost 1,000 students. Currently it has more than 1,000 adult and post leaving certificate students.

It was no wonder that during last year's elections, a campaign called SOS — Save our School was mounted. It is still the wish of the district that Greendale community school remains open. The Minister will know of some of the school's famous staff such as the great Brian Mullins, Roddy Doyle, Paul Mercier and others of a total of 30 hard-working and distinguished teachers who carried on the tradition for the people of Kilbarrack and Raheny over the past three decades.

I recently met the school stewards, Ms Niamh O'Dwyer of the TUI and Ms Maura Cullen of the ASTI, who gave me a dreadfully worrying account of the grave problems which have been imposed on the school by this precipitate closure. They outline the difficulties which will ensue for staff and students from the lack of consultation or liaison with the Minister's Department to date in regard to the future of staff and students. The 29 full-time staff and large number of part-time staff have had no communication about their future. The Minister and I both come from educational backgrounds and know how worrying and upsetting this must be for people with families and mortgages to consider. It is not good enough that we have not clearly spelt out what will be the future of the current school staff.

It is important that the Minister takes a hands-on approach to this matter, examines it urgently and liaises with the principal, Anton Carroll, and his distinguished staff. She should advise them of what will happen in the next two and a half years. We do not seem to have a modus operandi for the closure of a second level school, although we have seen closures of primary schools as the population works its way up. We need more primary level schools now but it is proposed to close no less than three very distinguished second level schools in my constituency, including Greendale community school.

The staff representatives are particularly concerned about part-time staff, some of whom have worked at the school for more than six years and have contracts of indefinite duration. Their futures are in limbo and we need to spell out clearly what will happen to them. Staff representatives also have grave concerns about the students because of what is happening in the school and because a closure date of 2007 has been indicated. There will be no first or transition year students in September and the number of students in sixth year has fallen to 28. They are very concerned as to how, when redeployment and retirement of staff comes into play, the principal, Anton Carroll, and his board will provide sufficient curriculum cover for all the students and ensure that the excellent and tremendous education which has been carried on at that campus for the past 30 years is continued until its closure.

My constituents do not want the school to close but they are very anxious that the campus remains as an educational campus. However, given that we are in this situation, it is important that the Minister liaises with the school and I appeal to her to do so. It must be disorienting and disturbing for staff, students, parents and the Kilbarrack and Raheny communities that this situation exists and I ask the Minister to take a sympathetic and considerate view of the current circumstances and ask her to have her staff immediately liaise closely with the principal, Anton Carroll, his staff, parents and pupils to try to manage this difficult situation.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Broughan for raising this issue. He is quite correct that the closure of a school has an effect not just on the staff and students in the school but on the community, particularly a school as distinguished as Greendale community school which, as the Deputy pointed out, has served the area very well from the time it was built to a peak of more than 900 pupils. The Deputy mentioned some of the more famous staff members and past pupils but the school aims to ensure that every child reached his or her potential. Therefore, I can understand that there is a great deal of sensitivity surrounding the decision by the trustees to close the school.

When one examines the demographics of the area, one can understand how they came to this decision because there has been a steady decline in enrolments over the years. Since 1996, enrolment has declined by 50%. In less than nine years, it has fallen from 449 students to 215 students in the 2003-04 school year and the current enrolment at the primary schools in the area would indicate that the decline will continue. Unfortunately, the numbers are not there.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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A new city is being built behind the school.

Rory O'Hanlon (Cavan-Monaghan, Ceann Comhairle)
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Allow the Minister to reply without interruption.

Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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I needed to inform the Minister as she is a southsider.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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She also happens to be the Minister for Education and Science. The school made an application to the Department of Education and Science for major capital investment in 1999 and the study commissioned by the Department estimated that an investment of €2.5 million would be needed for the remedial works. The general decline in enrolments in the area has resulted in spare capacity in the area of 2,300 places at post-primary level. It appears that Deputy Broughan's constituency is disappearing. In the circumstances, my Department did not consider that the level of capital investment required was a viable option, but it gave grant aid for the immediate health and safety issues at the school.

Subsequent to this, the Department of Education and Science held meetings with the trustees to discuss the future of the school because there did not appear to be adequate pupil numbers in the locality to enable it to regenerate. We were also concerned at the ability of the school to offer a broad and balanced curriculum, given the relatively small number of pupils enrolled. The trustees advised the Department in March 2004 that a decision had been taken to close the school in June 2007 and that there would be no intake of pupils in September 2005.

My Department concurred with the recommendations in light of the falling enrolment and taking into consideration the surplus capacity in the general area. It was a matter for the trustees to discuss this with the board of management, teachers and parents. Unfortunately, no circumstances would allow me to re-examine the issue. In regard to the students, every effort will be made to ensure that the current students and those who will continue in the school until 2007 will continue to get the quality education and curriculum they require to pursue their academic choices.

I pay tribute to the staff of the school. It is a difficult time for them and for the community but, given that the school will be in full-time second education use until 2007, the Department has not yet made a decision on the future use of the school buildings and grounds. We must have regard to the fact that it is such a major centre for adult education, and we will consult widely in that regard.