Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I call Deputy Martin Ferris.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I understand the order of speakers has been amended and that Deputy Anne Ferris's matter will be dealt with first as I have to leave immediately after I have replied to it.

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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My apologies but I did not have that information. I call Deputy Anne Ferris. It is a case of two Deputies called Ferris.

Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle and I thank Deputy Martin Ferris and apologise for the confusion.

I am pleased that this matter has been chosen for debate as I have been contacted by many parents across Wicklow who want an Educate Together secondary school for their children. I welcomed the statement by the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, of his intention to look at the issue of patronage for the primary sector. I thought it was high time that someone got to grips with this issue as I believe the great mix and diversity, which makes up Irish society, is not currently reflected in our school system. Educate Together is a relatively recent addition to the short list of patron bodies to govern our schools. However, it is one that has gone from strength to strength since the first school - the Dalkey School Project - was established in Dalkey in the late 1970s. There have been 65 schools brought into operation across the country under the ethos of Educate Together and I understand more primary schools are to open this year and next year. Five of these schools are within the north Wicklow and Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area. They include schools in Wicklow town, Greystones, Dalkey, Monkstown and in my home town of Bray. However, there is a problem as these students cannot progress to a nearby Educate Together secondary school as there is none in existence.

At the beginning of his term as Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Quinn took the important step of recognising Educate Together as a patron body for second-level schools. This commitment is welcome and I do not underestimate the significance of this recognition, given that a new second-level patronage body has not been recognised by the State since the 1930s. When the Minister announced the new school builds to meet our growing population I was hopeful that the school at the Blacklion site in Greystones would be among the first second-level schools to attain Educate Together recognition. This was not to be, however, although I know that sites in Drogheda, Blanchardstown and Lucan did attain this patronage. I know that good campaigns by parents were run on behalf of the interested patron bodies for the Greystones site, but ultimately the Church of Ireland was selected as patron. While I wish the school all the very best and I congratulate the parents and staff who are to embark on setting up this exciting project, a problem remains. The five Educate Together primary schools to which I referred earlier, still have no secondary school nearby to which parents can send their children. It is clear that this facility should be made available.

Research undertaken by Trinity College Dublin, demonstrated that over 90% of parents whose children attend Educate Together primary schools would send them to an Educate Together second-level school if such were available. This research is clearly reflected in the number of parents who wish to gain patronage at the Blacklion site in Greystones, with a total of 1,440 expressions of interest for such patronage.

It is also worth noting that the VEC school in Kilcoole is over-subscribed from its own catchment area and that there is no viable multidenominational option for students in the Bray-Greystones area.

Concerns have also been expressed to me that multidenominational admission policy does not adequately address the requirement for full equality and parity of esteem for students of all beliefs. Therefore, the question arises as to what provision will be made by the Department to meet the needs of parents and families looking for a nearby second-level Educate Together school in the Wicklow-south Dublin area.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I am taking this issue on behalf of my colleague, Deputy Ruairí Quinn, the Minister for Education and Skills. As Deputy Ferris will be aware, the Minister announced in June of last year that up to the year 2016 a total of 20 new primary and 20 new post-primary schools are to be established across a number of locations, to cater for our increased pupil numbers. Included in that announcement is a new post-primary school planned for Greystones in County Wicklow and which is scheduled to commence in September 2014. The Minister also announced new criteria and arrangements for the recognition and determination of patronage of these new primary and second-level schools. The new arrangements published by my Department include the establishment of a new schools establishment group, an independent advisory group to advise him on the patronage of the new schools following its consideration of a report prepared by departmental officials.

These new arrangements provide a balanced approach in allowing applications to be made by prospective patrons for the establishment of schools. The criteria to be applied in respect of patronage decisions place a particular emphasis on parental demand for plurality and diversity of patronage. In accordance with the application and patron selection process put in place by the Department, an invitation for applications for patronage of the new post-primary schools issued in July 2011. The closing date for receipt of applications from prospective patrons, having been extended to accommodate the possible submission of joint patronage applications, was 13 January 2012.

Applications for patronage of the new post-primary school in Greystones were received from Church of Ireland, Educate Together and County Wicklow VEC. All the applicant patron bodies proposed to establish multidenominational schools in response to parental wishes. There is only one post-primary school in the Greystones feeder area, namely, St. David's Holy Faith school, an English-medium Catholic school under the patronage of the Holy Faith Sisters. The provision of a multidenominational school would serve to increase the diversity of school provision and broaden parental choice in the area. All applicants agreed to comply with the relevant requirements set out by the Department and submitted very comprehensive applications. All were assessed in line with the published criteria which clearly state patron bodies proposing schools will be asked to provide evidence of parental demand. There was a considerable difference in expressed demand as between the different applications. All other matters being equal, on the basis of parental demand, the recommendation was that patronage of the new school in Greystones be awarded to the Church of Ireland.

Departmental officials submitted a report to the new schools advisory committee in June 2012 for its consideration and a further submission to the Minister for consideration and final decision. On 25 July the Minister announced his decisions on the patronage of 14 new post-primary schools to be established in 2013 and 2014. The combination of the existing provision and the establishment of a new multidenominational post-primary school in the Greystones area will cater for the needs of all pupils in the area. My Department will continue to monitor enrolments in the area to ensure there is sufficient school accommodation to meet projected future demands. Such is the scale of the projected growth in our post-primary pupil population that the Minister expects there will be a need to establish more new schools to meet the future demand for additional pupil places post-2016. The area referred to by the Deputy is one of several areas of population growth under consideration in this context. When the locations where further new schools will be provided are finalised and announced during 2013, it will be open to patron bodies, including Educate Together, to make an application for patronage in respect of any of them.

Anne Ferris (Wicklow, Labour)
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As I understand it, the new Church of Ireland school in Greystones will cater only for children in the Greystones area. Educate Together will continue its campaign for a new secondary school to service the larger area to which I referred. As I said, there are five primary schools under the patronage of that body in the Wicklow-Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown area. In most cases, the parents of the children attending these schools would like them to be able to avail of an Educate Together secondary education, either in County Wicklow or south Dublin. The demand for Educate Together schools at both primary and secondary level continues to grow.

I welcome the Minister, Deputy Ruairí Quinn's engagement on the issue of school patronage and the decision to nominate Educate Together as a patron for secondary schools. However, there are many parents in County Wicklow who are very disappointed that their children cannot progress to a secondary school of the same ethos within their area. There is a significant urgency to this issue as the children currently in Educate Together primary schools progress through the system. I will convey the Minister of State's response to the parents concerned and advise them to contact the Department when the new round of schools is announced.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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Like the Deputy, I strongly welcomed the decision by the Minister to award patron status within the post-primary school system to Educate Together. As in County Wicklow, there is a significant number of Educate Together primary schools in County Galway. As those children move through the primary school system, I fully expect parental demand for a post-primary option to increase. As I said, another round of new school announcements is expected in response to the very serious democratic challenges arising in the school system. I have every confidence that Educate Together will feature in these announcements, if parental demand is sufficient. The statistics certainly suggest we can expect to see a significant number of secondary schools opening throughout the country under the patronage of Educate Together.