Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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6. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures she is taking to address the ongoing lack of secondary school places in Wexford town, which is forcing many parents to send their children 25 kilometres each way to schools in Enniscorthy in County Wexford; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43783/15]

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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There are not enough places for children in and around Wexford town for children to attend school close to their homes. The waiting list has reached crisis level. What does the Minister plan to do about it? The national programme is not really tackling the severe problem in Wexford town. Are there any further plans on the cards to deal with it?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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As the Deputy will be aware, I announced in November last the need for the establishment of four new primary schools and nine post-primary schools to cater for increased demographics across a number of locations in 2017 and 2018. The demographic projections for the Wexford town area do not indicate that a new post primary school is required.

As part of the Department's school capital investment programme, a number of building projects in Wexford schools are being progressed, including Loreto secondary school and Wexford CBS, that will provide for increased capacity in the area. In addition, an application for additional accommodation was received last week from Selskar College, which is being considered.

My Department is also monitoring the position in the area taking into account the latest pupil enrolment data and the impact of planned expansion of school capacity. My colleague, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, last week met representatives of the five second level schools in Wexford town to discuss the pressures they face. It was agreed that the principals will share with the Department of Education and Skills the details of those who are enrolled for next year in order that we can identify whether these are cases where the same children are enrolled in multiple schools or if there are other factors which are creating unanticipated pressure on Wexford schools.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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At present four of the five schools in Wexford town have a waiting list of between 160 and 180 students. This is projected to get worse in the coming years. Loreto has capacity for 720 and that will increase with the new school to 900, an extra 180 places, but it alone has a waiting list of approximately 320 places. That will take six years to complete. We are not even close to addressing the problem.

It is beyond me how Wexford fares so poorly in so many areas. Many issues start with education. It is not without reason that unemployment in Wexford is over 22%, that we have one of the highest teenage pregnancy rates in the country, that we have high rates of problems with literacy and that we have one of the highest suicide rates. Education must be a vital factor in this but right now, Wexford is being poorly served in educational terms.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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As I stated at the outset, building projects have been approved for Loreto secondary school and Wexford CBS, which will provide increased capacity. As a result of the information that came to us last week through that meeting attended by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, my Department is making contact with each post-primary school to request details of their enrolment lists for September 2016. That will allow us find out if there is an accommodation shortfall and we will then work with schools to address that. All over the country, people may be on waiting lists for two or three different schools.

There are five secondary schools in Wexford town. These include the Education and Training Board school of Selskar College, St. Peter's College, Loreto Presentation and the Christian Brothers. We will collate the information on the pressures that all those schools are under to see if there is an issue to be addressed. The projection for the Wexford area indicates there will be an increase in pupil numbers between 2015 and 2021 within the school feeder area of approximately 200 students, with numbers going from 3,298 to 3,495. If we get any further information, that will be factored into any intervention required.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It appears the figures on the ground are different. I am surprised the Minister, Deputy Howlin, did not bring back a starker picture because of what we hear from parents in the area.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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He gave us a full picture.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It is good that work on Loreto is starting. It is interesting that one cannot open a regional newspaper now without seeing somebody from the Government parties turning a sod. What was the Government at for five years?

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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What does the Deputy want?

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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All of a sudden there is a surge to do something.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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It is called a recovery. There are more jobs and money about.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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I do not understand how for five years-----

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Schools were being built in the past five years.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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-----the Government did so little in this area.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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That is not right.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It is a bit like the idea that people should vote for the Labour Party and it will repeal the 8th amendment to the Constitution. What has the party done in the past five years and why did it not repeal the amendment then?

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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We did a lot. We had the marriage equality referendum, for example.

Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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It is beyond me how the party operates.

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Much work was done in the school building area over the past five years, despite the state of the economy. There should be fair credit given to my predecessor, Deputy Quinn, and the Government for ensuring that we did not leave children without school places and that we made projections and built schools. I am using the figures that we have for the Wexford area but, by all means, the Deputy should tell us if we find there has been a surge of which we have not been aware. We use the likes of child benefit figures to find out how many children are being born in an area in order to plan ahead. I assure the Deputy that the Minister, Deputy Howlin, made it very clear that these waiting lists exist but we want to collate the figures to get the exact number of young people who will seek places in post-primary schools in Wexford. We will address the issue in co-ordination with the schools.