Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this item for debate this evening. I wish to share the matter with Senator Kitt.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Treacy, to the House. He has a personal interest in this item. The Minister of State is aware that since Senator Kitt and I first raised this matter here on 18 October 2006, the Minister for Education and Science and the Department have made very little progress in determining what can be done for Kinvara. The parents and management board, and all concerned in the south Galway community have made a submission to the Department of Education and Science and the Minister asking for the continuation of second level education in Kinvara rather than the closure of a school. While the Minister and Department did not close the school, the ball is in the Minister's and Government's court to deliver second level education and not to allow the crisis to develop in south Galway that will follow the closure of this long-standing and esteemed school.

The Minister and the Department received a full and comprehensive report about Kinvara which has been well documented. It is unfair on all involved, parents, staff and students in the Kinvara area to be left in limbo because no decisions have been taken. The review has, we believe, been undertaken and hopefully is on the Minister's desk. It now behoves all to make a decision that there will be second level education in Kinvara. It is a growth area. How is it that the recent national development plan promises large expenditure on roads, rail services, water and sewage systems and so on yet we are closing a school in South Galway? The Minister of State, as a representative of that constituency, has an obligation to nail his colours to the mast and say this cannot happen. The Minister for Health and Children approached the Minister for Education and Science for a school in her constituency and it was delivered immediately. That is what we expect from the Minister of State.

How can a Minister for Education and Science preside over the dissolution of the board of management for a viable working school in Kinvara? The board was dissolved when it was due for renewal. I cannot understand how the Minister allows the school to continue to function without a board of management. It is urgent that she reinstate a board or provides for one to be elected.

On 7 December 2006 I wrote to the Minister for Education and Science asking her as an interim step to lease the facilities from the Sisters of Mercy at a reasonably attractive rate to ensure continuity of intake in September of this year. I was a member of a deputation which included the Minister of State and members of the local community, of the staff and board of management, and parents. I have received only an acknowledgement of the letter but not the reply which was promised although this proposal could be a useful solution.

The Minister of State knows the people of the area as well as I do. They want continuity of intake in Kinvara September so that there will be no gap in education provision. The surrounding schools in Gort and Callasanctius do not have the space to take in the students from Kinvara if the school there closes. They have applied to the Department over the past three or four years for extensions which have not been granted. This is one of the biggest growth areas in the country, as the Minister of State is aware. In Ballindereen, where there is a school catchment area, there is 48% growth which is accelerating. That is only one figure. I ask the Minister of State as a representative of the constituency to make the proper representations to the Minister to ensure that an early solution to this problem.