Dáil debates
Thursday, 8 December 2022
Saincheisteanna Tráthúla - Topical Issue Debate
School Accommodation
3:45 pm
James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, for taking this Topical Issue. My question relates to the availability of school places in north Kildare. As the Minister of State is aware, north Kildare is in the heart of the commuter belt and has a growing population. As always, there are growing pains. This is not new, but it does remind me of the early noughties when we had this situation before in 2005. Some 20 years later, I had hoped it would not recur, but unfortunately it has.
If I look around my constituency, I will start with Naas Community College, where I was chair of the board for the past five years, where the principal, Ciarán Keegan, does his level best to accommodate as many students as he can, but he has to turn people away. In Maynooth there are two new buildings, Maynooth Post-Primary School and Maynooth Community College, which were both built on the Moyglare Road in recent years. The project involves two brand-new schools side by side.
Their construction is possibly the largest investment in education at second level that the State has ever made. They only opened a couple of years ago, yet they are already oversubscribed.
A new school is awaited in Prosperous. It has not opened yet but it is due to be constructed. Three schools are coming together in Celbridge, which is a project that I have championed. There have been multiple school investments around the constituency, which I welcome. However, my concern is that, even with these projects, we will still be far behind the supply of school places we need.
My office and I have been inundated in recent weeks with parents crying out for help and saying they cannot get places in Naas, Maynooth, Kilcock or Clane and asking me about what can be done to help them. One of the actions I hope we can take is to plan ahead. Will the Minister of State advise on what the forward planning unit in the Department of Education is doing in this regard? Many parents have contacted me. The town of Clane, for example, has one secondary school and a couple of primary schools, with a few more in the hinterland. Thankfully, there has not been an issue to date. This year, though, there were 330 applications for the 210 places available, meaning that 120 people were left waiting. This came as a shock to parents because they had never experienced it before, but it should not have come as a shock to the Department of Education, which has access to primary school numbers, Central Statistics Office, CSO, census figures and other demographic metrics. As a result, I would have expected the Department to have been in a position to acknowledge, anticipate and respond to demand.
I have mentioned two brand new schools in Maynooth. Enrolment for first year in Maynooth Post-Primary School is 170 students and enrolment in Maynooth Community College, which is located next door, is 170, totalling 340 places. However, there are still 80 children waiting per school, totalling 160 at least. I do not have the exact figures for Naas, but Naas Community College, Naas CBS, St. Mary's College, Gael-Choláiste Chill Dara and Piper's Hill College are heavily oversubscribed. This is not a new situation for Naas, having lasted for several years. I get calls at this time every year about a lack of places, with parents saying that their children are way down the list in 120th, 150th or 180th place. When children are put on a list, they are sometimes subscribed to multiple schools and lists thin out as it gets closer to September, but parents suffer considerable anxiety while waiting to see whether the lists are oversubscribed or whether there are duplicate applicants. As information comes out, students or families make up their minds and choose places or the schools choose them, but this does not always happen and, unfortunately, some pupils are left behind. That is no comfort to those waiting anxiously at this time every year, though. The problem is predictable.
Kilcock has the same issue. Scoil Dara still has a waiting list of 77 students after the second round offers were made and the schools attempted to whittle down the number.
I have given a cross-section of entirely predictable issues in Clane, Naas, Kilcock, Maynooth, Leixlip and Celbridge. There are large growth plans for all of these areas. We need to build houses and expand the population's accommodation, which the Government is doing through Housing for All, but we must keep pace. We were in this situation before in the 2000s, so it is disappointing that we are in it again now. I hope that the Government has a plan to address it.
I thank the Minister of State and look forward to his response.
3:55 pm
Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this Topical Issue debate on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, who is otherwise engaged.
I thank Deputy Lawless for raising this matter. As he pointed out, the population of Kildare, and north Kildare in particular, has been growing for a number of years. He has been a strong advocate for the provision of services for the increasing population, be those commuter services, schools or additional Garda stations. He is working on all of these because they are having to catch up with the growing population. I acknowledge his consistent work in this regard.
On the matter of post-primary school places in north Kildare from September 2023 onwards, the Deputy will be aware of most of the issues affecting his constituency of Kildare North from his close involvement with schools' boards of management. For school planning purposes, the Department of Education divides the country into 314 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 residential development activity, is used for this purpose. Additionally, Project Ireland 2040's 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 makes an assessment of the existing capacity within that particular area and its ability to meet any increased demand. Where data indicate that additional provision is required at primary or post-primary level, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may be provided through one or a combination of the following: utilising existing unused capacity; extending the capacity of schools; and the provision of new schools. The Department's projections of post-primary school place requirements in north Kildare show an anticipated continued growth in enrolments in the short to medium term.
It is important to note that, where enrolment pressures arise, it could be as a result of a variety of factors. Sometimes, it is down to population increases. It is important that local authorities are kept in touch with regarding housing developments that are likely to occur in the area. Where a school has a particular reputation, it can draw pupils from outside its area. Single-sex schools might not be suitable for some pupils. In other cases, parents went to a school and want to keep the connection. While I would not overemphasise it, some parents in areas with growing populations have their children's names down for a number of schools. While that would have to be verified, it can be an element, albeit a small one.
The Department is working to establish the true extent of capacity issues across school planning areas through its discussions with the relevant school patrons and authorities. This close engagement will allow the Department to identify at an early stage particular capacity requirements for the forthcoming years and how best to deal with those.
A number of projects are under way in north Kildare or were completed recently: Maynooth Post-Primary School and Maynooth Community College; Confey College; Coláiste Chiaráin in Leixlip; Naas Community College; Coláiste Naomh Mhuire in Naas; Salesian College in Celbridge; Celbridge Community School; St. Farnan's Post-Primary School; Scoil Mhuire in Prosperous; Scoil Dara in Kilcock; and Enfield Community College. I would be happy to give further information to the Deputy on these projects.
James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his response and his kind words and acknowledgement concerning my work in north Kildare. Laois in his own constituency is experiencing similar growing pains, which the Minister of State advocates on regularly.
I am aware of the projects the Minister of State mentioned and there has been investment in a number of schools in north Kildare. If these were all new projects about to come on line, I would look forward to a future with them open, but many of them are already up and running. Maynooth Post-Primary School and Maynooth Community College have been open for a couple of years. Naas Community College is open. I attended its opening with the Minister, Deputy Foley, only a few months ago. Enfield Community School is also open. Despite these schools being up and running, we still do not have enough places. That is my concern.
The Minister of State is an intermediary in this, but I ask that he call on the Department of Education to take up this matter and that its forward planning section contact schools proactively and use the data the Minister of State outlined to us - Project 2040, CSO data and primary school admissions data. There is a role for principals - many of them do this work already - to engage collaboratively with one another. The Education (Admission to Schools) Act 2018 provides for that level of engagement so that principals can cross-check application lists and whittle down overlaps.
More remains to be done. The system must be streamlined and made more efficient. In the case of Maynooth, it has been put to me - the suggestion makes sense - that there should be a common patron, given that there are two schools on the same campus. I do not blame the principals, both of whom I know. Mr. Johnny Nevin and Ms Siobhán McCauley are doing their best. At some level, though, perhaps communication is not working or the lists are not being refined. We can see the same happening in Clane. The principals in Naas meet regularly, but the process needs work. Perhaps the Department is the missing piece of the jigsaw.
I will conclude with Councillor Daragh Fitzpatrick, a friend and colleague who is chair of the Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board. Regarding Maynooth, he recently stated that there were 14 categories for ranking applicants but that the schools were already full after the first category.
What is the point of having 14 criteria if you cannot get to the second round because there is no more space after the first category? That is the building that I said was the biggest school project of its type in the State ever. I stress that we need those additional places. We need clarity from the Department on when and how they will be provided and we need some comfort that it will go ahead for 2023, 2024, 2025 and beyond. I would be very concerned if it was not the case.
4:05 pm
Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy for highlighting the situation in north Kildare. I believe Deputy Lawless fully understands the position. As I mentioned earlier, the Department uses 314 planning areas around the country to plan for the future development of schools. The planning areas in Kildare North are Maynooth, Kilcock, Leixlip, Celbridge and Prosperous. I will make a practical suggestion to the Deputy. Years ago, when I was a newer Deputy in County Laois, there were 11 schools in Portlaoise, all with competing demands. I eventually got every one of their principals and board of management chairs to a meeting in the county hall where we had representatives of the Department to try to do it on a proper basis rather than each school competing with each other. It was a way by which we ended up with great results. I suggest that the Deputy identify the particular schools in the areas that I just mentioned and try to put a mechanism in place where the principal and the chair of the boards of management of the four, five or six schools can come together and work collectively. It would make it easier for the Department were there a joint effort coming forward. It might be an unusual way to do business but it is probably the Irish way of doing business by getting people in around the room and rather than each of us competing with each other and everyone ringing the Deputy to say that their classroom, ASD unit or school extension has priority. We know what happens then. He should bring the local authority into that meeting too because it is doing the county development plan and knows what is being planned in the area. As it will have details on commencement notices for new houses too, the local authority could be helpful in that process.
I acknowledge Deputy Lawless for raising this as he has done with so many issues in Kildare North, which is an area of growing population. All I would say to him is to keep the pressure on.