John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I should like to share time, with the permission of the House, with Deputy Michael D'Arcy.

Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.

John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I join in the good wishes to Deputy Connick on his elevation to Minister of State and wish him well in that position.

Gorey community school has more than 1,600 students enrolled and as such is the biggest second-level school in the country. Again this year, however, we find it is not able to cater, in particular, for the first-year students who want to attend from September 2010. Somewhere in the region of 45 to 50 students have no space or school to attend.

This situation has been ongoing in Gorey for a number of years. For the last three or four years we have had difficulties with different Ministers, trying to secure space for such students. Gorey, as Deputy D'Arcy can tell the House, and the Minister of State will know, has doubled in population over the last ten to 12 years during the Celtic tiger era. Many people from the Acting Chairman's constituency came to live in Gorey and the numbers have escalated out of all proportion as regards school attendance.

Two new primary schools were built in the last few years and we have been promised another second-level school under public private partnership. The site for this has been acquired, planning permission has been granted and we awaiting the go-ahead from the Minister. The outgoing Minister, Deputy Batt O'Keeffe, promised that an announcement would take place early this year and, hopefully, the new Minister, Deputy Mary Coughlan will make the announcement shortly.

In the short-term, however, there is a problem at Gorey community school. Parents are their wits' end and I ask the Minister to take a serious look at providing extra space, whether on the grounds of Gorey community school or on a site at its entrance where some space is available for rent at present. A solution must be found very quickly and it is important the Minister takes on board the issues we are raising tonight to allay the fears of parents and students coming from the different primary schools in the area.

Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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I congratulate Deputy Connick on his new position. I hope he will spend much time looking after those fishing issues in Donegal and off the coast.

This is a major issue. For the first occasion during my time in politics, there is a school that is full – with 45 pupils that have nowhere to go. One might say that while this had happened in the past, there was capacity in other schools on the periphery. However, there is now no longer such capacity in those other schools.

This has meant that the schools have had to draw lots for students in the catchment area. It is a very unfair position that children find themselves in. In one situation where there were two students to attend a community school, three miles away, one child's name was drawn in the lottery and the other was not. The lottery was held in the presence of a garda, on behalf of the community school, so that everything was seen to be above board.

This is a crazy scenario, but I do not want to get into the history of it. The children from another school, Ballygarrett, traditionally went on to Gorey community school. There is a strong tradition of music in the school, which is not available in Kilmuckridge which is within the Ballygarrett catchment area. The number of children due to come from the primary schools was known and it was foreseen that the difficulty would first arise in September 2010. I ask that capacity be made available on the grounds of Gorey Community School. I appreciate Deputy Browne's remark that there is a premises available, but it is some distance away across a car park.

The school management, the Department and everybody involved must get together to make the accommodation available. It will only be required for the short term. The outline planning permission for the new second level school has been granted and the local authority has compulsorily purchased a portion of land to provide the access route from the relief road in Gorey for the new school. The solution, of course, is the new second level school but there is a difficulty for September 2010 and potentially for September 2011 in ensuring the children are not discommoded.

I thank Deputy Browne for sharing time. I have spoken to other Deputies from the constituency and we are due to meet the Minister. She has given a tentative date of Thursday morning for that meeting, if that is possible. Hopefully, we will be able to put our views directly to her also.

Michael Kennedy (Dublin North, Fianna Fail)
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I am sure the Minister has more than a passing interest in this reply.

Seán Connick (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I thank my constituency colleagues for their good wishes. It is unusual to have three Wexford men in the Dáil by themselves. I am interested in the response because I am very familiar with the issues involved.

As my colleagues will understand, I am replying on behalf my colleague, the Tánaiste and Minister for Education and Science, who, unfortunately, cannot be present. I thank the Deputies for raising the matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the Dáil the position with regard to Gorey Community School, although, due to industrial action on the part of some staff in the Department of Education and Science, I am not in a position to give full details.

Gorey Community School is a sole post-primary school provider for the Gorey catchment area. It has a current enrolment of 1,586 pupils, which includes 142 PLC, post-leaving certificate, students. The school has been extended twice in the recent past to cater for its increasing enrolments. Initially, €3 million was spent to increase capacity to 1,300 pupils. Subsequently, the school indicated that it needed an extra six classrooms to meet its long-term needs and funding of over €800,000 was provided to deliver these. The Department's medium-term plan is to provide a second post-primary school to meet the needs of the Gorey catchment area.

This new school is being delivered under the Department's expanded public private partnership programme. The project is one of eight schools which the then Minister for Education and Science approved for inclusion in the third bundle of schools to be procured via the public private partnership method of delivery. This bundle is in the pre-procurement stage. Detailed output specifications and the public sector benchmark are being finalised and outline planning permission has been received in the case of seven of the eight schools, including Gorey. Work is continuing on securing outline planning permission for the remaining school site. On successful completion of this process, it is the Tánaiste's intention that the bundle will be handed over to the National Development Finance Agency for procurement.

The indicative timeframe for the delivery of a public private partnership school building currently stands at approximately four years from the date the bundle is announced. When the new school is delivered, it is intended that Gorey Community School will operate with a reduced and more ideal enrolment below 1,300 pupils. Pending the delivery of the new school, it is intended that the needs of the Gorey catchment area will be met at Gorey Community School and the Department has been supportive in light of the demands being placed on the school for additional places by providing funding for the extensions already mentioned.

It has been brought to the Department's attention recently, however, that there may be a capacity issue at the school for the 2010-11 school year. A preliminary examination of the school's enrolments indicates that the current enrolment is 23 less than the previous year. This situation should help to relieve some pressure. For the last number of years, the school also applied to enrol pupils from outside its catchment area. As an exceptional measure the Department of Education and Science agreed to this on the understanding that the school had sufficient accommodation to facilitate these pupils. It will be of concern to the Department if this development now means that pupils from the catchment area cannot obtain places in the school for the new school year.

Notwithstanding this, it is open to the school authority to apply to the Department for further accommodation if this is needed. The Department has no record of any such application to date. It would look on an application of this nature as favourably as possible. The Department will be in contact with the school to establish the position and to work with the school authority to ensure that all pupils seeking places for next September can have them. I again thank the Deputies for raising this matter and assure them that the Department of Education and Science will work with Gorey Community School to assist it with any accommodation issues it might have.