Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Deputy Emmet Stagg and Catherine Murphy are sharing time on this issue.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. I am sorry the Minister is not here to take the debate as he, rather than the Minister of State, is the Minister responsible. I thank the Minister for the provision he has made for north Kildare with two new second-level schools in Maynooth, and a second level and new primary school in Celbridge.

Cóláiste Cois Life was established in 1997 to serve the needs of west Dublin and north Kildare. It has been repeatedly stated that this was the purpose, including very recently in answer to a parliamentary question from my colleague, Deputy Bernard Durkan, to the Minister for Education and Skills who said the school was for students from north Kildare and west Dublin. However, a new enrolment policy has been put in place by Cóláiste Cois Life which excludes north Kildare students. All-Irish schools in Celbridge, Leixlip and Maynooth are now excluded from that post-primary all-Irish school. These three schools have no outlet to a second-level school.

The Minister has stated repeatedly that he will make provision if there is a proven need; there is now a need proven. I propose to the Minister that the provision can be achieved at a minimal cost. It is accepted that Cóláiste Cois Life is full. Maynooth post-primary school will be empty shortly because although it is a fine structure it is not fit for purpose for the post-primary general school. The Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board is prepared to make it available for use as an all-Irish second-level school in north Kildare. In September 2014, the sixth class students from the three primary schools will have nowhere to go. I suggest that the vacant prefabs in Cóláiste Cois Life could be used on a temporary basis until the post-primary school building in Maynooth is available, which is expected to be shortly. I ask the Minister of State not to tell us about Aonad because this is not an acceptable alternative to a full immersion in an all-Irish system. The secondary schools in Naas and Clondalkin might as well be on Mars because there is no public transport from north Kildare to either place and the Minister of State will not provide school buses from north Kildare to those schools.

I know the Minister is a reasonable and practical man. I am making a very positive proposal which will deal with the issue at minimal cost and I ask him to consider it.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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The all-Irish school model is well established in north Kildare, with the first primary school established in 1979. There are three all-Irish primary schools in the north-eastern part of the county, in Kilcock, Maynooth and Leixlip. In September this year they will have to refuse admission to just short of 200 pupils. They are very successful schools. Six classes of sixth class - rang a sé - will be finishing in June and there is insufficient post-primary provision for them. Cóláiste Cois Life was developed as a regional school. It is popular in Lucan and pupils from two primary schools in Lucan will take up all the available places in Cóláiste Cois Life from next year with the result that no children from north Kildare will be admitted because of the enrolment policy. Modern prefabs are in place. Short, medium and long-term strategies need to be put in place and we have made proposals. I met the Minister several times last week and I gave him the numbers for each of the schools.

Approval is awaited from the building unit for a third stream in the all-Irish school in Kilcock. This proposal is stalled at a time when the baby boom is producing the children and the parents desire this type of education. It is not a fad and it has been a consistent desire since 1979. It is a choice that has to be met. The kind of choices we debate are exclusively restricted to the issue of religious patronage. Parents want to make different choices and they are choosing with their feet. Some 197 students in north Kildare are not being accommodated where there is a desire to have them accommodated. There is something going wrong with the planning for those children and this needs to righted by the Department.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputies for raising this matter as it provides me with the opportunity to outline to the House the position on the extent of all-Irish school provision in the north Kildare area. Three Gaelscoileanna were established at primary level in north Kildare to meet demand for instruction through the medium of Irish, Scoil Chearbhaill Uí Dháiligh in Leixlip, Gaelscoil Chill Cóca in Kilcock and Scoil Uí Fhiach in Maynooth, while in nearby Lucan, two new 16-classroom school buildings have been provided for Gaelscoil Naomh Pádraig and Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada.

I am aware that one of the Gaelscoileanna recently applied to my Department to expand its accommodation. As with any application for capital investment, the assessment process will necessarily take into account overall enrolments and the extent of the existing and planned school accommodation in the area where the school is located. My Department is currently liaising with the patron of the school in question and a decision will be conveyed to the school authorities when this process has been finalised.

At post-primary level, the Deputies will be aware that in July 2012, the Minister, Deputy Quinn, announced the patronage of 14 new post-primary schools to be established to cater for increasing demographic changes across a number of locations. This included the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board as patron of a new post-primary school for Maynooth to commence operation in September 2014.

One of the requirements for patronage of new post-primary schools where the medium of instruction is English, is a willingness and commitment to open an Aonad in the school if there is a significant element of parental demand for instruction through the medium of Irish. In the case of Maynooth, the Department noted the high level of parental demand identified for alternative language provision. Accordingly, the announcement included the establishment of an Aonad in the new Maynooth post-primary school. In addition, my Department has confirmed that if sufficient demand for education through the medium of Irish in the Aonad is demonstrated over a four-year cycle, consideration will then be given to the establishment of an independent Gaelchóláiste. I expect that this Aonad, together with provision in Cóláiste Cois Life, can between them meet the current demand for students seeking instruction through the medium of Irish.

The Department of Education and Skills is forecasting an increase nationally by 2019 of over 70,000 primary pupils and over 35,000 post-primary pupils. To meet the needs of our growing population of school-going children, the delivery of new schools together with extension projects will be the main focus for capital investment in the coming years. Considerable investment has already been made in the north Kildare area in recent years to meet the demographic challenges, including significant all-Irish provision at both primary and post-primary level. My Department will continue to keep the demographics of the area under review and additional accommodation requirements will be met under this process in consultation with the patrons of the schools concerned as appropriate.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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The Minister of State's response was a typical civil servant one rather than a response to what we said. He did not even consider what we said and I ask him to do so rather than what the civil servants are telling him about this in isolation. We face a situation where there is no all-Irish second level school for students from three primary schools.

In a short period of time, there will be an empty school in Maynooth which is entirely fit-for-purpose for the establishment of a second level all-Irish school. The civil servants are saying they might consider it in four years time if a need is proved. How can one prove a need if there is nowhere to show the need? Aonad will not show a need. We have the primary schools and the students who have said they want to continue in all-Irish setting. If we value the Irish language and its development and growth, we should deal with this situation now rather than in four years time. Without very much cost, we could establish an all-Irish school in Maynooth in an existing school building to cater for the three schools right beside it.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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I sometimes wonder what is the first language. My children went to one of these schools in the 1980s and the early 1990s. Each time one was established, the parents were the drivers and it was fought all the way. The Aonad is seen as a rowing back or a watering down. It is not seen as an acceptable model. Hundreds of parents have united in terms of what they want and they do not want an Aonad. Again, they are being asked to prove there is a demand. There are seven sixth classes coming out of the primary schools. The estimate is that 60% of those will want to go on to an all-Irish model, which is not available. There will not be one place available to them from next year unless there is a change in the way the Department deals with this.

The building section must also do something in regard to the application for the third stream in Kilcock. Almost 100 pupils are being turned down in that school alone. It has a wider catchment area, which takes in Clane.

What has the Department been counting? Has it not been counting the children in those schools? It does not seem it has been counting the right thing at all. The Minister of State referred to the overall enrolments. It seems it is not about choice or continuing a very successful model in terms of teaching through the medium of Irish.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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As I stated earlier, the biggest challenge the Department faces between now and 2019 is to find and establish accommodation for those 70,000 extra children in primary and 30,000 in post-primary. That is a major challenge which the Department is undertaking over a five year programme which was announced by the Minister, Deputy Quinn, very early in the life of this Government. The Department had regard to both the existing and planned all-Irish provision at primary and post-primary level in the areas concerned in determining where new schools would provide tuition through the medium of English or Irish.

As I mentioned, Maynooth Community College, which will open in September 2014, includes an Aonad and, in the opinion of the Department, along with Coláiste Cois Life, both those centres are able to address current demand.

Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)
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That is not correct.

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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According to the people in the building unit, the Aonad and Coláiste Cois Life have sufficient capacity to accept the enrolments likely to occur from the Gaelscoileanna in that particular region.

If the Deputies are making the case there is insufficient accommodation available within those two centres and if there is an opportunity, as one Deputy suggested, to look at reallocating a particular school building in the region, I will certainly undertake to raise that directly with the officials concerned and to revert to the Deputies on that matter.