John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I want to raise again the issue of access to primary school places in Rathcoole, County Dublin. This is an issue Deputy Eoin Ó Broin and I raised in the House prior to the summer recess. Unfortunately, our concerns have come to pass, in that children in Rathcoole have been unable to secure primary school places there. To put things into context, in February last year the principal of one of the local primary schools wrote to the Department. He stated:

Our school is the only English medium school in the village. There is also a Gaelscoil situated here. The Department of Education has signalled that there will be a school open in the Rathcoole/Newcastle/Saggart area in 2020. However, this seems highly unlikely to occur in such a short time-frame.

Most of our classes are full at 31 pupils per class. We have waiting lists for most streams. There is an increasing number of housing developments under construction and planned for construction. This will bring much increased demand for places.

Families have moved into houses in our village only to discover that our school cannot accommodate them. Some families are travelling significant distances to other schools as a result. We also have a situation whereby some families have one or more child enrolled with us and another child enrolled elsewhere, as there is no space available for the other child.

Our Board of Management has had to engage with the Section 29 process of the Education Act on many occasions, where an appeal was taken by families as a result of our refusal to enrol. At a recent Section 29 Hearing in the Department of Education, Marlborough St., the chairperson of the Section 29 Hearing Committee requested that we inform you of the existing pressure and further expected pressure for school places in Rathcoole.

We are currently processing next year's Junior Infant classes. [That was for September of this year.] There have been 117 applications from the local community alone this year: 93 places will be offered.

We highlighted all of this earlier in the year. When places were offered, a number of parents were on a waiting list and they came to us. We brought it to the floor of the Dáil and debated it. The summer has come and gone and children have gone back to school. A significant number of them have been unable to gain access to one of the two local schools in Rathcoole, namely, the Gaelscoil and the national school. Some of those children have gone elsewhere but some of them have gone back to preschool. It is not in their best interests from a developmental point of view that they are not going to primary school when they are of an appropriate age to do so. It is not happening.

The Minister has previously issued a reply stating that in 2020 there will be a new school. I have said it before, and I want to emphasise it now, that the new school proposed is not in Rathcoole. It is in Fortunestown. The Minister identified it in a previous reply. It will not address the need that exists today. Little has happened from the Department's point of view to reassess the demand for primary school places in Rathcoole, where new houses are being built and planned and there is a shortage of places today. The children of today, and not the future, have failed to access one of their own local primary schools. I appeal to the Minister to reassess the school capacity issue in the Rathcoole area for this year and next year and in the longer term as the housing development continues.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it provides me with an opportunity to outline the Department's position on primary school places in the Rathcoole area. In order to plan for school provision and analyse the relevant demographic data, the Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a geographical information system, using data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. With this information, the Department carries out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels.

Where data indicates that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, depending on the circumstances, be provided through utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools, providing a new school or schools, or a combination of these.

The question of enrolment in individual schools is the responsibility of the managerial authority of those schools. It is the responsibility of the managerial authorities of schools to implement an enrolment policy in accordance with the Education Act 1998 and the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018.

The Department's main responsibility is to ensure that schools in an area can, between them, cater for all pupils seeking places. Parents have the right to choose which school to apply to and where the school has places available, the pupil should be admitted. However, in schools where there are more applicants than places available, a selection process may be necessary. This selection process and the enrolment policy on which it is based must be non-discriminatory and must be applied fairly in respect of all applicants.

As the Deputy is aware, the Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018, which was signed into law by the President on 18 July 2018, is important legislation that will introduce a more parent-friendly, equitable and consistent approach to how school admissions policy operates for the almost 4,000 primary and post-primary schools in this country and a fair and balanced school admission process for all pupils.

As the Deputy is also aware, in April 2018, the Government announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years, including a new eight-classroom school to be established in September 2020 to serve the Newcastle, Rathcoole and Saggart school planning area. This announcement follows nationwide demographic exercises carried out by the Department into the future need for primary and post-primary schools throughout the country. I recently announced that five of the new primary schools being established between 2020 and 2022 are being designated for Irish-medium education, including the new eight-classroom primary school to serve the Newcastle, Rathcoole and Saggart school planning area. The new school will be located in the Saggart and Citywest area. It is adjacent to the Tallaght school planning area in which there is no Gaelscoil.

The Department is conscious that Rathcoole is an area of growing demographic demand and additional residential development, and the Department is actively reviewing the potential need to establish a new primary school in Rathcoole.

In respect of meeting current demand for primary school places, the Department approved additional temporary accommodation for Scoil Chrónáin primary school in 2018 and 2019.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his reply. This is not sarcastic but I had received most of the reply previously and I was aware of it. To take the final paragraph first, the Minister said that in respect of meeting current demand for primary school places, the Department approved additional temporary accommodation. I acknowledge this. I am saying that despite this a significant number of people are failing to get a school place in Rathcoole. I acknowledge the steps taken by the Minister but having taken those steps children in Rathcoole are failing to get a school place.

The Minister also said what he said previously, that there would be a new school in the Saggart and Citywest area, which will be in Fortunestown. I acknowledge this but it will be of little benefit to people living in Rathcoole. By the time it is built housing developments in the Citywest area will, by and large, fill it. These are not solutions.

This is a problem not of the future but of today. Children and parents in Rathcoole are not accessing them. If families living in Rathcoole want to have their children educated in Rathcoole, they should not have to bring them to adjacent towns or villages; there should be a place for them. It is not just from the point of view of the parents, but the friends those children will make and go through life with and the various sporting bodies they will join. It is part of their community. They should be able to access a place in their own community.

The Minister gave a bit of hope when he said, "My Department is conscious that Rathcoole is an area of growing demographic demand and additional residential development and my Department is actively reviewing the potential need to establish a new primary school in Rathcoole." He has missed the boat; it is already needed. It is not for the future that it is needed. The Minister listened when I read the letter from the principal into the record. When families move into the Rathcoole area, they are not just trying to access junior infants classes; they are coming with children of different ages. It is virtually impossible to get a child of any age into the school. I urge the Minister and his officials to review the capacity in Rathcoole and not to come back and say the Fortunestown school in the Saggart and City West area is the solution because it is not. There is a deficit today and the Minister's plan for the future does not address the deficit it needs to address.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the sense of urgency. I also appreciate the intensity of development in different parts of the country and obviously in the Newcastle, Saggart and Rathcoole area. That is a school planning area. I deliberately separated out Rathcoole in my second last paragraph.

John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I quoted it.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The former Deputy, Frances Fitzgerald, MEP, and Deputy Curran have outlined very clearly that there is a distinct need in that particular area. We are reviewing the potential to establish a new primary school in Rathcoole. That means collecting as much data as possible from planning permissions for future developments as well as for ongoing developments. I know he is not talking about the future but about the here and now. He is saying there is a need today with children travelling to different places. The data from the principals of the two existing schools on the parents who tried unsuccessfully to get children into school in September will be very helpful. Those data will be collated. We will look at planning permissions. We will look at existing demographics. It is a very young population, as the Deputy outlined previously. When I said we are reviewing it, I do not mean we are looking at it as a way of letting him that things will be grand and we will get on with what is in place. We are serious about areas like this. If there is demand in a particular area, we will give it serious consideration.

This is the second time I have discussed this issue in the House. I know I may have put on the record information I have given previously. It is important to disseminate that information publicly. A unit in the Department proactively examines future population projection and we will give it serious consideration.