Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this particular matter again. I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to reply.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Drive on

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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In north Kildare we have a particular problem. We have a rapidly growing population. This population growth continues year after year but particularly in the last couple of years. We at local level, Oireachtas Members and members of local authorities et al., have put forward proposals ourselves to ensure catchment areas were regularly defined and that they were logical in terms of travel distances from the point of view of the parents. The problem is that most or all of the parents are at work so they have a difficulty if they cannot travel to the nearest school. The problem that now exists, unfortunately, is that for ordinary mainstream education there are difficulties in virtually all schools. There is a difficulty in gaining access for children and their parents and grandparents went to those schools. However, because of some changes that took place in the planning department it is found that they cannot attend the school of their choice which happens to be maybe a school their siblings are also attending. As a result, there is total confusion in the community. In trying to be helpful, possible solutions have been put forward by the Department of Education to the effect the children could go to another school that beyond the existing school and have transport provided and so on. That is all very fine but would not be necessary if adequate provision was made with regard how the management of the catchment areas was done and how much regard it had for the parents.

This is also a particular problem with regard to children with special needs. In some cases there is more than one child in the one house. In many of these cases there is no place available at all. We had a meeting some time ago and the Minister kindly arranged for a meeting in her Department with the interested parties. It transpired during the course of the meeting that the planning department had done its own sums and made its own plan but it did not measure up to the needs of the community. This causes very considerable difficulties. For example, there are some cases where children are already being deprived from joining the school that is nearest to them and to which their parents went and where they already have siblings in the school and they cannot join them. That is impossible for parents to handle if they have to do a school run in the morning and in the middle of the day. It cannot be done. It is a tough enough challenge for the parents to be able to handle a child or more than one child with special needs and depending on the degree of special needs. It is very important at this stage to try to resolve the problem by identifying how that can be dealt with in the shortest time possible and in the quickest way with the minimum of disturbance to both the parents and the children. I ask that at this stage an urgent review of the catchment areas and the plan that is obviously not working be done forthwith with a view to bringing some kind of resolution to the problem.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I would like to thank the Deputy for raising this matter. It gives me the opportunity to set out for the House the position with regard to school places including special education in north Kildare for September 2024 and onwards.

I can assure the Deputy that the provision of school places to meet the needs of children and young people at primary and post-primary level, including children and young people with special educational needs is an absolute priority for the Department of Education and the Government.

The Department has invested significantly in schools in County Kildare over recent years. Under the national development plan, a total of almost €250 million has been invested in schools in County Kildare over the past five years. This investment has focused on provision of additional capacity to cater for its increasing population and there are further significant projects in our pipeline including for the north Kildare area. In line with the Department's demographic projections of post-primary school place requirements, there has been a continued growth in enrolments throughout many school planning areas in North Kildare.

In response, the Department is progressing a number of building projects in north Kildare under the national development plan. This includes projects at primary and post-primary schools and provision for mainstream accommodation as well as for children with special educational needs. These projects include recently completed new school buildings for Maynooth Community College, Maynooth Post Primary School, Naas Community College and Maynooth Educate Together National School. Additionally, a number of further new school buildings and extensions are at construction or planned, including: St. Farnan’s Post Primary School, Prosperous; Scoil Dara and Scoil Uí Riada, Kilcock; Maynooth Boys National School; Celbridge Community School; Scoil Naomh Padraig, Celbridge; St. Raphael’s Special School, Celbridge; Leixlip Educate Together National School; Gaelscoil Ruairí, Maynooth; Mercy Convent Primary School, Naas; Hewetson National School, Clane; and St. Patrick's Boys National School, Clane.

The Department is aware of pressure for school places in north Kildare. As part of planning for September 2024, data on applications for admission has been received by the Department from post-primary schools across areas of known enrolment pressure, including the school planning areas of Maynooth, Naas, Celbridge, Newbridge, Kildare, Prosperous and Clane. The sharing of this data has been very effective in the identification of school place requirements across the areas. In the majority of areas across Kildare, through the work of schools, patrons, management bodies and the Department, there are sufficient school places available to meet the needs of children in the area. The Department is working with schools and patrons to make additional places available in a small number of areas where a need has been identified. As part of this engagement with patrons, the Department is also collaboratively planning towards 2025-26 and future years, as part of forward planning generally.

I also wish to acknowledge the invaluable work being done by school principals and wider school authorities in expanding the educational provision for pupils with special educational needs. The Department has close engagement with the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, which has responsibility for co-ordinating and advising on the education provision for children nationwide. The NCSE is working actively with the Department and other key stakeholders, including school patrons and management bodies, to provide additional special classes and special school places for the 2024-25 school year, including across north Kildare.

The Deputy will be aware that a new special school is being established in Kildare for the 2024-25 school year, under the patronage of Kildare and Wicklow Education and Training Board. It will provide additional special school places to meet the needs of families in the area. With respect to special classes, I can assure the Deputy that the Department is working to ensure that there is appropriate provision in place to meet the school place needs of all children. In the first instance, it is focused on ensuring that the use of existing school accommodation capacity is fully optimised. Where additional capacity is required, this can be provided by means of modular accommodation where accelerated delivery is required or by means of traditional construction projects. The Department will continue to plan for future school place needs using most up-to-date information, including child benefit data, enrolments, census data and information on current and planned residential development activity.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for a comprehensive reply. In it, he identified all of the pinch points that are already visible and causing problems. The Minister of State is correct. There has been huge investment. However, even new schools that have been built recently are now overflowing and there is difficulty for pupils in catchment areas in gaining access to those schools. In some cases, decisions have been made by the planning section to move a child to a different school, thereby creating a further catchment area that will disrupt the entire system if it is allowed to continue.

At this stage, there is evidence to show that schools are overflowing. St. Farnan's Post Primary school and new post primary schools in Maynooth are facing difficulties. There are difficulties in Straffan and Clane, as well as in all the other places Minister of State mentioned. In Naas, the Mercy Convent School has sat half-finished and idle for the past couple of years. It is vital that work is ongoing in order to meet the challenge. If we do not meet that challenge between now and next September, we will fall further back because the population is growing more rapidly than we are able to build for it.

The Minister of State identified all of the crucial areas. I ask that the planning and development section goes to work immediately to meet the challenges that are there now for mainstream pupils, as well as children with special needs who need attention more quickly because parents are under pressure to ensure that, as far as they can, they get a reasonably good education.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I also wish to point out that the Department will continue to liaise with local authorities in respect of their county development plans and any associated local area plans, with a view to identifying any potential long-term school accommodation requirements across school planning areas. I can assure the Deputy that Department of Education officials will continue to work to ensure there is sufficient school place of provision for all children throughout north Kildare for the 2024-25 school year and into the future.

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State.