Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

While I note the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy McHugh, is delivering legislation in the Seanad, I am disappointed that he is not here to hear this debate.

I have been advised by the Minister in reply to a previous parliamentary question that the country is divided into 314 school planning areas. Skerries is one of those planning areas but I am afraid there is no evidence of any planning going on. Skerries community college is the only second level school in the area under the patronage of the education and training board, ETB. The Government plan for new schools from 2019 to 2022 does not include a new second level school for Skerries.

The community college is taking in 180 students in September 2020. There were 257 applicants. As of Monday, there were 68 children on a waiting list which may reduce somewhat with some parents sitting on two offers. However, there is no alternative school in this designated planning area. Some families in Skerries decide to send their female children to the all-girls Loreto secondary school in Balbriggan but the 68 children on the waiting list are from the catchment area and have attended one of the six designated feeder schools in the enrolment policy. The school has three criteria for enrolment, namely, catchment area, feeder school and sibling. Children who are the first born in a family are the ones mostly affected in the points race for priority and they have to go into a lottery for priority on a waiting list. There are many such families in Skerries today. They are not in the catchment area or feeder schools for any neighbouring school planning area. What are they to do? Where are they to go? The school currently has 975 students. It was built as a 900-pupil school.

I met the school principal this week to get the facts. I spoke to Paddy Lavelle, who is the chief executive officer of the patron ETB, to highlight the crisis. Skerries is a growing town where building continued at a low level right through the crash and has accelerated in the last couple of years. The Department has dropped the ball when it comes to planning for post-primary education in Skerries. It must pick up the ball and accelerate with it. There is no excuse for not doing so, given that this problem was highlighted last year.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I understand that the Minister, Deputy McHugh, cannot be here. I do not mean to be disrespectful to the Minister of State, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, when I say it is disappointing that he is not here to hear what we have to say. I have raised this issue with him on several occasions.

I would like to give an example to illustrate the point I am making. I will not use the child's name. His parents have written to me to say it is a source of great ongoing concern for them that their son cannot get a place in the local school. They have a connection to the school that goes back to its original foundation as a De La Salle school in 1947. They have relatives who attended the school throughout the intervening period. They have tried to secure an alternative place in other schools. More than 190 children are on the waiting list for Ardgillan community college and more than 70 children are on the waiting list for St. Joseph's secondary school in Rush. This boy is at the bottom of the list because he does not attend any of the feeder schools for those two schools. Another parent has corresponded with me to say that when the first lottery was done, she got a letter to say that her son was in 17th position on the waiting list. She had her fingers crossed in the hope that some girls would choose to go to Loreto and her son would still get a place. Just eight places were offered in the second round. The boy in question is now in seventh position on the waiting list. His parents are gravely concerned.

I have received a response to a parliamentary question confirming that the Department has received an application for additional accommodation from Skerries community college. Will that additional accommodation be in place in time for the September 2020 intake? Parents are already gravely concerned not just that their kids cannot go to the local school, but that there will no school places at all for them. It is unacceptable that we are finding ourselves in such a situation. This issue has been raised because north County Dublin is a growing area. As I live in Skerries, I know that building is going on all over the locality. There does not seem to be any sense of urgency on the part of the Department to get schools built and to accommodate these children.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputies Ryan and O'Reilly for raising this matter. I am sorry that the Minister, Deputy McHugh, is not here. I have been given an answer by the Department. I will go back to the Minister with the extra information. I will make sure he contacts both Deputies. I spent approximately 18 years working as a school principal. I understand all the issues around education. I am pleased to have an opportunity, on behalf of the Minister for Education and Skills, to set out for the Dáil the situation around school places in north County Dublin, particularly at Skerries community college. The Department divides the country into 314 school planning areas to plan for school provision and to analyse the relevant demographic data. It uses a geographical information system, with data from a range of sources, to identify where the pressure for school places across the country will arise. The Department uses this information to carry out nationwide demographic exercises to determine where additional school accommodation is needed at primary and post-primary levels.

As the Deputies will be aware, in April 2018 the Government announced its plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the four-year period from 2019 to 2022, including five new primary schools and three new post-primary schools in the north County Dublin and Fingal area. In addition, four new primary and seven new post-primary schools have been established in the area in recent years. The requirement for new schools will be kept under ongoing review and will have particular regard to the increased roll-out of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040. The Department's capital programme provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms, if required, in schools where an immediate enrolment need has been identified or an additional teacher has been appointed.

The Department is aware of the enrolment issues in the Skerries area for 2020. It is in ongoing direct contact with the patron of Skerries community college in respect of capacity in the school. Skerries community college has expressed a willingness to increase its long-term projected enrolment to 1,000 pupils. In this regard, interim temporary accommodation has been approved for Skerries community college, pending the assessment of future accommodation needs. The patron of Skerries community college is currently tendering for the interim accommodation approved. It is expected to have all interim accommodation in place for September 2020. The assessment process to determine the school's permanent accommodation needs is nearing completion. The provision of additional accommodation on the site must be carefully planned with consideration to the limitations of the site. While I understand the enrolment situation may result in some pupils not obtaining a place in their first-choice school, my Department's main responsibility is to ensure existing schools in the area can, between them, cater for the demand for school places in September 2020.

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Although I am grateful to the Minister of State for reading the reply that was provided to her, I have to say that every piece of it was complete and utter nonsense. A solution must be found for the children of Skerries for next September. The Minister of State must give the House an indication that she understands the seriousness of the matter. She must give parents some hope. There is no hope in the reply she has read. In accordance with the up-to-date and accurate numbers I have put on the record of the House, there will be a requirement for two additional classrooms. The three modular classrooms referred to in the Minister of State's reply are due to be delivered to the school in the new year. They will not provide additional capacity. They will relieve the pressure within the school from the previous efforts to push up capacity. Storage closets and the school hall are currently being used as makeshift classrooms. The things that are being done in the school hall and all over the school represent last year's delayed response to the problems that exist. This is not new capacity and it will not deliver against what Deputy O'Reilly and I have raised. The children we are talking about do not have alternative options. It is nonsense to talk about different schools in different areas because there is no other option. Skerries is a school planning area in and of itself. It is not connected with any other area. The Minister and the Department must respond to the real crisis that exists in Skerries now. Skerries is a designated school planning area. We need proper planning and delivery. I urge the Minister of State to bring what we are saying to the attention of the Minister, Deputy McHugh. Based on the reply she has read, which I have described as nonsense, it is clear that we need to meet the Minister as a matter of urgency.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I agree that we need to have a meeting with the Minister as a matter of extreme urgency. The Minister of State has said that it might not be possible for children to go to their first-choice school. Deputy Ryan and I have outlined that they might not be able to go to any school. As Skerries is a school planning area of its own, they will go to the bottom of the list in neighbouring schools. The children in the catchment areas of those schools will be accommodated before the children of Skerries. The suggestions for dealing with the school accommodation crisis that have been made by the Minister of State will do no more than alleviate the current pressure. We need proper facilities and additional capacity to cope with the waiting list. We have already outlined that the children who are on the waiting list cannot be accommodated in the other schools because there is no space for them. It is not a case of saying that children cannot have their first-choice schools. The fact is that they might not have any school at all.

What is needed is additional accommodation that will provide additional capacity, rather than merely alleviate the pressure on the school.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I will relay to the Minister that the Deputies wish to meet him. They referred to the need to provide additional capacity from next September. The information I have in front of me indicates that the Department is in ongoing direct contact with the patron of Skerries community college regarding capacity in the school. The Deputies have stated there are approximately 900 students in the school. The information I have is that the school has expressed a willingness to increase its long-term projected enrolment to 1,000 pupils and that the Department of Education and Skills will provide temporary accommodation on an interim basis. I take the Deputies' point that such accommodation will cater for existing pupils. I will ask the Minister to revert to them to clarify the matter and and deal with their request to meet him.

Brendan Ryan (Dublin Fingal, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

The problem is what will be done about providing additional capacity from next September, not in the long term.

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I am aware of that issue.