Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Question 101: To ask the Minister for Education and Science her views on the emergence in effect of segregated primary school provision for minority ethnic students in north Dublin; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [21841/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Deputies Brian Hayes and Quinn as spokespersons for their respective parties and thank them for facilitating the change to today's business.

In recent years unprecedented levels of investment have been provided both to improve existing school facilities and provide extra school places where needed. Improved forward planning has also been put in place through greater co-operation between the Department of Education and Science and local authorities and the publication of ten-year area development plans by the Department. This combination of investment and planning has allowed extensions to be built to schools all over Ireland, while many new schools have also been built in order to meet the needs of developing areas. Construction work this year alone will deliver over 700 classrooms to provide permanent accommodation for over 17,500 pupils, mainly in developing areas.

With regard to the specific issue of school places in Balbriggan, as raised by Deputy Hayes, the situation is as follows. Conscious of the fact that Balbriggan is a developing area, the Department has facilitated a significant expansion in the number of school places in the area in recent years. Established schools have been given extra teachers and accommodation, while new schools also opened in 2005 and 2006. Educate Together had also indicated its intention to open a new school in Balbriggan in 2008. At the same time the Department has been working with Fingal County Council to acquire land for new school buildings.

Given the population expansion that has been taking place in Balbriggan, departmental officials kept the enrolments situation under review over the summer in consultation with the existing schools. As soon as it became clear applications for the schools had grown to such an extent that a new school would be needed this year, my Department acted swiftly to secure accommodation for up to 120 children in a new school in Sunshine House. Educate Together agreed to be the patron of the school. I express my thanks to it for working with us to open the school within such a tight timeframe. I also convey my thanks to the principal of the school, whom I know had a difficult first few weeks with all the media focus on the school. I know she is deeply committed to ensuring her pupils receive a top quality education.

It was never and is not the Department's intention to establish schools solely for children of a particular ethnic background. However, in a situation where these children needed places, the new school was the only option.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House.

The current ethnic make-up of Bracken Educate Together national school is reflective of the nature of the families that had moved to the area recently. It is not the result of any unwillingness on the part of the existing schools to accept children of any particular ethnicity or religion. In fact, some of the existing schools have quite large numbers of newcomer children enrolled. I know many people in Balbriggan were very upset by the implications in some sectors of the media that there was any form of racism at play in this regard.

The Department intends to work with all schools in the area to help achieve a better spread of children of all nationalities across the different schools in future years. Common enrolment policies may be one way of achieving this. I accept that providing sufficient pupil places in all rapidly developing areas, including those with large immigrant communities, is absolutely vital to ensuring enrolment policies do not lead to immigrants being unable to secure places. Under the national development plan, €4.5 billion is being invested to improve existing school buildings and provide extra accommodation for an expected growth of 100,000 in the school-going population in the coming years. Together with the improvements in planning already put in place and those provided for in the new programme for Government, this will enable my Department to meet the needs of developing areas into the future.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for her good wishes to me as the new Fine Gael spokesperson on education.

Is the Minister seriously suggesting to the House that she takes no responsibility for what has become, in effect, a segregated model of education in north County Dublin due to the failure of her Department over a long period to put in place additional educational facilities? Does she agree that her Department is not fit for purpose in terms of the provision of additional educational facilities in growing new suburbs? Will she confirm that in 1999, when one of the schools concerned, St. Mologa's national school Balbriggan, applied for a major extension of its facilities the Department lost the application and then refused to approve it, despite the fact that children from a variety of ethnic backgrounds were available to fill the places the works would have delivered?

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Up to 15,000 more children are attending school than was the case at this time last year. A great deal of work was done to accommodate each of these additional children and only 50 children were left without a place. While phenomenal progress was made in ensuring places were made available, it can be difficult to achieve complete accuracy in this regard owing to the movement of people into and within the country. It was a major achievement to have been within 50 places of the required number.

The provision of places for junior infants in schools in Balbriggan has doubled since 2002. While it is not desirable that a school would only have children from an ethnic background, the position is reflective of the area and the new communities which have been established in Balbriggan. A similar situation arose in areas to which Irish people emigrated because people gravitate to areas where members of their own communities live. Anyone living in Balbriggan would agree that, based on the people moving into the town's estates, the school in question, which is more mixed than we initially thought, is a reflection of the new town. The provision of school places and ensuring integration continue to be the Department's priorities.

Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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Arising from events in Balbriggan in September, I ask the Minister to consider establishing a national forum on education to address the patronage, management and ownership of schools. Given that more than 90% of all schools are owned or controlled by the Catholic Church, does the Minister agree it would be more sensible to establish such a forum to allow the education partners to engage in a public discussion of all the relevant issues? I understand the Minister is involved in bilateral discussions with the education partners concerning a new model she wants to establish. Will she consider establishing a national forum along the lines I suggest as a means of having a public debate of the crucial question of ownership and control of our schools?

I welcome the statement made by the Catholic bishops today regarding the church's ambition to divest itself of some schools in areas in which it controls a large number of schools. Nevertheless, we need a much more thorough and public discussion of the issues, as opposed to a secretive, bilateral discussion between the Department, on the one hand, and the various education partners, on the other.

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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There is nothing secretive about the manner in which the Department works. I will give two practical examples. First, the production of our area development plans is a public process in which consultation with every interested partner and members of the public is invited. A number of such plans, which determine what schools are needed and where they are needed, have been published. This is a public consultation process which takes place at local level and encourages real and active citizenship. Second, all the new schools being approved are the subject of a public consultation process. They are properly advertised in local areas and there is public involvement. As Deputy Hayes stated, not only are we engaged in bilateral work with school patrons in which we continuously monitor changing circumstances, we also work closely with local authorities, which have public debates by virtue of being full of public representatives.