Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Gabhaim buíochas as an deis chun an t-ábhar seo a ardú inniu. Is ábhar an-tábhachtach é do go leor tuismitheoirí i gCill Dhéagláin i Contae na Mí, mo Dháilcheantar féin. Tá a lán daoine buartha faoi seo. Tá páistí ag dul ar scoil lasmuigh de Chill Dhéagláin agus lasmuigh de Chontae na Mí, uaireanta i mBaile Átha Cliath. Táim ag impí ar an Rialtas agus ar an Roinn le blianta bunscoil nua a chur ar fáil i gCill Dhéagláin toisc go bhfuil an t-éileamh ann.

Thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise primary school provision in Ashbourne again. I have raised it previously in parliamentary questions and in the education committee. The population of Ashbourne continues to grow. At the end of the recession, house building was starting in Ashbourne when it was not happening in other places. We are beginning to pay the educational price now. There is simply not enough room for all the children who require primary school places in Ashbourne. Over the last number of years, as people moved to Ashbourne, inquired about schools and found there were no places, some of their children continued to go to the school they attended previously, perhaps in Dublin. In one case the school is in Bray and in another it is Drogheda. In other cases they attend schools in the countryside outside Ashbourne. The Department of Education and Skills helpfully provides a list of alternative schools, but one of them is 22 km from Ashbourne. That is unacceptable and should not be suggested to parents.

Children are entitled to exercise their constitutional right to primary education. It is an important constitutional right. They are entitled to have that education in their local area among their friends in the excellent community in Ashbourne and in association with the sports clubs, drama groups, scouts, guides and other groups for young people in the area. Children should go to school with their peers in their local area, and that entitlement is not being satisfied in Ashbourne at present.

Last year, there was an attempt to bang heads together to find out whether extra places could be extracted from local primary schools. Not much emerged from that. However, the queries still come to my office and I am sure to the offices of other Members about where there might be school places. The Minister has organised a meeting with the school principals at the end of this month in Ashbourne. I welcome that insofar as it goes and I am happy to attend it on foot of the Minister's invitation, but it is not the job of the local principals to provide places if there are no places. That is the job of the Department of Education and Skills. The Minister's colleague, the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection, Deputy Regina Doherty, announced yesterday that the Department is open to providing a new school. I would prefer if the Department was actually opening a new school. It is always open to opening a school, but the question is whether it will open one in Ashbourne next September. I do not know what the purpose of the Minister, Deputy Regina Doherty's, statement was because it was not an announcement but simply restated the obvious.

We seek something concrete. We want places for children. I invite the Minister to visit Ashbourne - his party colleagues have probably already invited him - to see the housing development, visit the excellent schools and meet some of the parents involved in this campaign. They have set up an online petition. They have visited my office and I am sure they have visited the offices of other politicians. They are worried and desperate. I could raise all sorts of school issues in my constituency, such as Lismullen, O'Carolan College in Nobber, Dunboyne and a list of schools that need building work, but this case involves children who may not have a place in their home town.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta fá choinne an tseans labhairt ar an ábhar iontach tábhachtach seo. Tuigim na deacrachtaí in achan cheantar a éiríonn as an bhrú, in Átha Cliath agus na contaetha atá cóngarach dó ach go háirithe. Dá n-ardódh an daonra, bheadh an brú ann. Sa cheantar seo bhí suas le 150 daltaí scoile i gceist anuraidh. Bhí imní ar na tuismitheoirí nach mbeadh spás ar fáil i mbunscoileanna an cheantair, ach socraíodh an cheist. Táim cinnte go mbeidh réiteach ar an fhadhb seo i mbliana.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to set out the situation with the lack of places at primary schools in the Ashbourne town area. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, my Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas. The Department uses a geographical information system, GIS, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The GIS uses data from a range of sources, including the Central Statistics Office, Ordnance Survey Ireland, the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection and the Department's databases. With this information the Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises at primary and post-primary level to determine where additional school accommodation is needed.

Major new residential developments in an area also have the potential to alter demand in that area. In that regard, as part of the demographic exercises, the Department engages with each of the local authorities to obtain the up-to-date data on significant new residential developments in each area. This is necessary to ensure that schools infrastructure planning is keeping pace with demographic changes as there is a constantly evolving picture with planned new residential development, including additional residential developments arising from the local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF.

Where demographic data indicate that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through either one, or a combination of, the following: utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools or provision of a new school or schools. Approximately 40% of extra school places are delivered by extending existing schools. In April 2018, the Government announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years, 2019 to 2022. In addition to the new schools announced, there will be a need for further school accommodation in other areas in the future.

With regard to Ashbourne, in 2018 concerns were raised locally about waiting lists for primary schools of up to 120 pupils. The Department worked closely with the principals and patron bodies of the schools in the area to put contingency measures in place. Notwithstanding that those numbers of pupils did not ultimately materialise in September 2018, the Department considers that there is a need for increased capacity in the area in the short term and over the medium to long term taking account of residential development in the area. I am aware there are a number of schools in the Ashbourne school planning area with waiting lists for enrolment for September 2019.

The Department is engaging with the principals of the five schools in the Ashbourne town area, and I thank the principals for their engagement. The school principals met recently to carry out a joint exercise to establish the net demand for 2019.

This information has been received within the past week by my Department and it is currently under consideration. I acknowledge and welcome the engagement and co-operation of all of the political parties in that regard. In parallel, my Department is actively engaging with the patron of one of the schools in the area in regard to expansion of that school for 2019 to deal with immediate needs. Interim accommodation solutions for September 2019 and September 2020 will be developed with the aim of utilising, in the first instance, any available existing capacity. As pointed out by Deputy Thomas Byrne a meeting has been arranged between myself, principals of the local schools and Oireachtas Members to discuss the issues. I have on doubt Deputy Byrne will participate in that meeting.

My Department is conscious that Ashbourne is an area of growing demographic demand and additional residential development and it is open to establishing a new school to respond to the medium to long-term demand arising in the area, if necessary. Factors such as the scale and timing of developments in the Ashbourne area will determine the medium to long-term requirement for additional school places, including the potential need and timeline for a new school. These medium to long-term requirements are currently being examined by the Department. The process will include an opportunity for patrons to assist the Department in identifying requirements for new schools in rapidly developing areas beyond the 42 schools announced in April 2018.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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Go raibh maith agat. I acknowledge and do not disagree with anything the Minister said. He is correct that these concerns were raised last year by principals. They were also raised with me and I raised them privately with the then Minister, Deputy Bruton, but nothing materialised. It is also the case that the Minister and the Department do not know how many children from Ashbourne are being educating outside the town. I know for a fact that the Minister's officials handed out a list of alternative schools to a number of parents last year, including one school that is 22 km away. I am aware that children from Ashbourne are attending school in Drogheda, Bray, Malahide and other parts of Dublin. There are people whose children are on the list for Malahide as well because that is where the parents came from. I do not think the Department is able to track this activity, which is failing in the assessments that are taking place.

There are two major difficulties, one of which is ready-made families, which was first mentioned some years ago by a former and esteemed colleague of mine. These are families who have older children when they move into particular areas. These children are not expected and that is a particular problem as well. They should be expected. This issue should have been dealt with at least 12 years ago when the Department first started to deal with these issues. The other issue in Ashbourne is the people for whom English is not their first language, many of whom are Irish citizens and all of their children are Irish citizens. These people are as local as anyone else in the area. There is definitely a language barrier with a proportion of these parents and that is a problem. In an effort to get some movement on this issue I previously used the word "discrimination". There is no question that there is a language element to this. People either do not understand the system or they are not confident to communicate. That is my experience. Without question, the number of parents that have been in touch with me and other politicians has increased this year. We need action quickly and we need certainty for parents and schools. The Minister spoke about September 2019. Parents watching and listening to this debate are worried about the future of their children and their schooling and they need certainty fairly quickly.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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That certainty will be forthcoming. The information from the principals was received last week. We will meet at a political level at the end of the month when we will have an opportunity to be updated by the officials. If I have information before that, I will share it with colleagues.

On the language barrier and parents struggling to communicate through the medium of English, it is an issue. During one of my visits to St. Luke's national school in Tyrrelstown in regard to infrastructural issues I visited another building in the complex where parents are taught English. There is provision within the higher education institutes and education and training boards for people who are not proficient in the English language. The model operated in Tyrrelstown is interesting. It might be of interest to the Deputy in the context of the deficiencies in his own area. When I was there I met parents from Georgia, France, Syria and as far as Pakistan, which is indicative of the range of people who are being taught English while their children are at school. It is a very interesting model.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister is aware of the urgency around the issue.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I am.