Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Senators Kitt and Ulick Burke for raising this matter. I welcome the opportunity to outline the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the provision of post-primary education in Kinvara, County Galway. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, who is out of the country on official business.

In October 2006, the trustees of Seamount College, namely, the Sisters of Mercy, announced their intention to withdraw as providers of education in the Kinvara area and to close the college. Seamount College is a voluntary secondary school and decisions such as this are within the remit of the patron body, the Mercy Sisters. The trustees informed the Department of Education and Science that closure was to be on a phased basis, with no intake of first year pupils from September 2007, culminating in a full closure in 2012 and thus allowing the junior students to have a transition year, if feasible, and complete their leaving certificates thereafter. The trustees also confirmed directly to the Department that the current site at Seamount College will not be available for the provision of post-primary education once the college closes after 2012.

Following the announcement of a phased closure by the trustees, a group of local parents met the Minister and representatives of the Department of Education and Science and outlined their concerns. Officials of the school planning section of the Department also met separately with representatives of Gort community school who outlined their concerns in relation to the trustees' announcement.

The Department's main role in respect of a decision by a patron body to close a school is to ensure that the best interests of the pupils are catered for in the period leading up to the closure and that there will be sufficient places in existing schools in the general area for pupils who would have normally enrolled in the closing school.

The examination of the information received is currently under way in the Department of Education and Science. As part of this examination, an analysis is being carried out on matters such as population growth, demographic trends, current and projected enrolments, recent and planned housing developments and the capacity of existing schools to meet the immediate demand for pupil accommodation. I assure the House that it is being dealt with as a priority matter by officials in the Department at the direction of the Minister, Deputy Hanafin.

This is a complex matter and it can be resolved only by flexibility on all sides. In particular, the Mercy order has made a unique contribution to the development of education for over a century, including in the Kinvara region. I publicly appeal to the order on behalf of the students, teachers and parents in the wider Kinvara area to ensure the necessary space and time is provided to ensure that second level education remains a permanent and integral part of the community there for the century ahead.

I again sincerely thank Senators Kitt and Burke once again for raising this matter in respect of our constituency.