David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the office of the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter. I hope the Minister of State has put in for overtime, because he is putting in long hours today. We are lucky in east Cork, because Youghal has a good secondary school, Cobh has two, Midleton has four and Carrigtwohill has two, although one is in temporary accommodation. They have extraordinary staff and professional and caring principals. The education and training board, ETB, does a good job. The difficulty is that, every year, all of these schools are oversubscribed, mainly because of double, triple or quadruple applications from parents. This leads to a situation where, when places are offered, there are extremely long waiting lists. They fall off as time goes on and people choose schools. Just today, I had calls from three parents whose children were high on waiting lists in some schools already.

I acknowledge that the Department of Education has done great work over the years in making resources available to these schools. We have new buildings in CBS Midleton, St. Coleman's College in Midleton, in Youghal and at a new school that is about to start construction in Carrigtwohill. The Minister of State might arrange for information to be provided to me about when shovels will be on the ground. It is all ready to go and planning has been done. One can imagine a child in sixth class in primary school where all of his or her friends have places and he or she does not. That child then goes home to ask his or her parents what is wrong and why there is no place for him or her. Many kids are still not sure whether they will have places, despite the great work that principals are doing.

We need to ensure that schools get extra resources to provide extra classes. I know St. Coleman's already has one of those for 24 students, but I do not think that is enough. We need to expand the schools more. We also need to talk about a new second level school in east Cork. Given that Carrigtwohill's second level community college has taken 12 years to get to this stage, I contend and hope that people from the Department of Education are listening that planning for a new second level school in east Cork should start soon. The schools there are at breaking point.

I want to ensure that, when and if the schools take on extra students, they do not have to wait until the following September to get resources. They should get the resources this September. I also point out that many Ukrainian teenagers have moved into the area. They are welcome and it is great to see them. I am delighted that we are able to help and support them, but they will need extra school places. I emphasise the need for action by the Department to support the schools. Perhaps we need a common enrolment system such as there is in Limerick. I am not sure if the Leas-Cheann Comhairle is aware of this. The Minister of State might be. There is a central application system for secondary schools, so there are not waiting lists. There is clarity for parents about where their children are going and they do not have to apply to three, four or five schools.

I want the Minister of State to pass on the message that when schools take on extra students next September, they need the resources to match. Extra classes need to be made available as required so that every child has a school place. We also need to look at this system so we are not here again next year making the same points. I know my colleague in the constituency who is here, Deputy Buckley, would have a similar concern.

Long-term planning for a new second-level school in east Cork needs to start now.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Stanton for raising this important issue on behalf of his constituents. I apologise for the absence of the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, who is unavailable this evening. As the Deputy may be aware, for school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 school planning areas and uses a geographical information system to anticipate school place demand. Information from a range of sources, including child benefit data, school enrolment data and information on residential development activity, is used for this purpose. In addition, Project Ireland 2040 population and housing targets inform the Department's projections of school place requirements. Having considered the projected requirements in each school planning area, the Department then makes an assessment of existing capacity in that particular area and its ability to meet the increased demand. Where data indicate that additional provision is required at primary or post-primary level, the delivery of such additional provision depends on the circumstances of each case and may be provided through one of, or a combination of, 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. The Department's projections of post-primary school place requirements in east Cork show an anticipated continued growth in enrolments in the short to medium term.

In response to meeting the projected future demographic demand in the area, a new post-primary school, Carrigtwohill Community College, was established in 2016. A project to deliver a new, modern 1,000 pupil permanent school building for the school is under way.

The Department issued a letter of intent to the preferred tenderer on 15 February 2022. This allows the preferred bidder to put in place the bond, insurance and confirmations of all legal arrangements required under the contract. Following receipt of all the necessary documentation, the Department will be in a position to issue the letter of acceptance, which will allow the contractor to mobilise on site. It is expected that the letter of acceptance will issue shortly after receipt of all the necessary documents. Once the successful contractor is appointed, the Department's project manager will liaise with the contractor to ensure that the community college is prioritised and delivered as early as possible within the contractor's programme of works for the campus.

In the meantime, additional accommodation has been approved for Carrigtwohill Community College for September 2022, which includes six general classrooms, a home economics room, a special educational needs class, and ancillary accommodation. This accommodation is being delivered by Cork Education and Training board, CETB.

The Department's capital programme also provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms, including accommodation for pupils with special educational needs, if required, for schools where an additional enrolment need has been identified or where an additional teacher has been appointed. An extension at St. Colman's Community College, Midleton, was completed recently, which will cater for up to 1,000 pupils. A number of other large-scale building projects are also in train to cater for similar pupil numbers. This includes expanded capacity at Christian Brothers Secondary School and St. Mary's High School, Midleton. In addition, St. Aloysius College, Carrigtwohill will expand to cater for 1,000 pupils, Pobalscoil na Tríonóide in Youghal to cater for 1,200 pupils, and Coláiste Mhuire and Carrignafoy Community College, both in Cobh, to cater for 600 and over 700 pupils respectively.

Under Project Ireland 2040, the Department continues to make progress to increase the infrastructural capacity in the schools sector to meet demographic and other demands. It is expected that the enrolment pressures in east Cork, and other areas will reduce in the short term as such planned additional capacity comes on stream and as demographic demand moves past its peak.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, and the Department of Education for a very comprehensive reply. I note that the letter of intent was issued on 15 February by the Department for the school in Carrigtwohill Community College. That is almost three months ago. I would expect that this would be sorted pretty soon. The Minister is already on record stating that she wants this school to be opened by September 2023. I do not believe this is going to happen now.

The Minister of State, Deputy Burke, is aware of the plans to build thousands of houses in east Cork. The Minister of State is also aware of the fact that the Minister for Transport has blocked the road project there, which puts all of these houses at risk. This is a concern to me, to my colleagues and to the people in the area because housing is at a premium. If these houses go ahead we would need extra places. This is why I am saying that we will need to start planning for a new school now. Also, St. Mary's needs clarification from the Department with regard to extra accommodation that has already been granted. This is very welcome but it needs to be nailed down pretty soon for September, otherwise we will have another problem.

These schools are doing a tremendous job. The Minister has called out the enrolment of all these schools. There are more than 1,000 pupils in some of the schools, which is very big and growing. They cannot grow much further, however, as they do not have the space. We really need to act here pretty soon and start planning for the future. St. Mary's is completely landlocked at this stage and has permission to move to a new site. This needs movement pretty soon. St. Aloysius' College in Carrigtwohill also has permission to expand and build a new school there, which is badly needed.

There is so much to be done, but I must get back to my original point that when a child does not have a second-level school place at this time of the year - and this is not just one child, it is many children - it leads to stress, worry and consternation. We can see why parents would apply to more than one school because of the worry they have of not getting any place. I also raised the issue previously about the bus. Quite often a parent will take the school place that is not the nearest school because they are told that there is not a place nearer and that they are on a waiting list, which is a de factorefusal. If they get a place in the school that is further away then they may not qualify for the school transport there. I had asked the Department about this previously, and I am asking again now, that Carrigtwohill would be made one area and one school education centre for school transport purposes. The schools are only a couple of kilometres apart. That would solve another problem.

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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I thank Deputy Stanton for his very well-put argument. From the briefing documentation here I am aware that the Department is at one with the Deputy's concern about capacity of the area. The Department will work closely to resolve it. A number of projects are in the offing, as we have spoken about previously. From the documentation here I know that the letter of acceptance for Carrigtwohill will be imminent. There is confidence that those documents are now coming in or are near completion.

The Deputy also raised very valuable issues about funding, which one does need in advance to prepare for the additional growth in school capacity, and also the CAO-type application process that was carried out in Limerick. Parents and students need certainty at a very stressful time when trying to get into post-primary schools. I appreciate that it can be very difficult. I will bring the issues raised by Deputy Stanton to the attention of the Minister for Education.