Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael)

At the outset, I would like to provide a quick chronology of events at Kingscourt. I would also like to acknowledge that Councillor David Blake from Kingscourt has been working very hard on this project and has been lobbying me intensely on it. He wants me to convey to the Minister of Education and Science the community's anxiety on the matter.

In 1968, Cavan VEC bought the requisite lands to provide a school for Kingscourt. Numerous submissions to the Department from the VEC on the provision of a school took place after that. A letter in June 1981 from the then Minister for Education, the late John P. Wilson, stated that the catchment for the proposed new school was decided. However, the position of three additional primary schools would be decided following consultation, which effectively gave further impetus to the school.

A report was forwarded to the Department of Education and Science in May 2007 in an effort to progress the case for a new school in Kingscourt. The Department forwarded a letter to the VEC in April 2009, giving approval in principle for the establishment of a new post-primary school in Kingscourt. At that stage, there was a ministerial announcement from the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Smith, that he had been informed by the Minister for Education and Science of an agreement in principle to build the school, with all the usual media focus on that. Department officials visited Kingscourt at that time and looked at the proposed site and the existing accommodation. It was proposed that the existing premises be used temporarily for the new school until such time as a new building would be in place. This made logical sense and allowed for incremental growth of the school.

The VEC wrote to the Department in May 2009, outlining the potential primary feeder schools for the proposed new post-primary school. That was a further consolidation of what was already coming through. A letter to the Department in September 2009 from the CEO of the VEC in Cavan requested a roll number in respect of the new school, with a view to putting the necessary action in place to open in September 2010. There has been no response yet to that letter, which is the reason for this matter on the Adjournment.

Kingscourt is the only town in County Cavan with a population of more than 1,700 that does not have a second level school. There has been an increase of at least 13% in the new entrants to primary schools since the report was prepared by the VEC in 2007, so the case for a new school has increased. There are 400 pupils being bussed from Kingscourt to schools in Carrickmacross, Bailieborough, Nobber and Ardee. The 2007 report from the VEC, which was comprehensive and empirically and factually based, stated that Nobber would lose 35% of its pupils if a school was opened in Kingscourt, but that this was well compensated for by an increase in population in the area and by the growth of Nobber. That growth is demonstrated by the fact that there has been a request for an extension to the school in Nobber. There is also an overflow into Nobber due to overcrowding in Navan and Kells. Carrickmacross has four primary schools that feed into the town's post-primary school, with 680 pupils. The impact of a new school in Kingscourt would have considerably less impact in Carrickmacross than Nobber, but Carrickmacross is a rapidly growing town. The impact on Bailieborough, and Ardee would be negligible. I can supply all the figures from this report to the Minister.

The physical facilities are already in Kingscourt. The building, the classrooms, the grounds and playing infrastructure are there to start the school. The physical space is there and the commitment in principle is there. Why should there be discrimination against Kingscourt? It has the fastest growth rate in the whole region. The dislocation involved affects society in the area as kids do not identify with their town when they are bussed out to schools in other towns. There is a revenue loss to the town of about €10,000 per week due to lunches and so on. There is also a transport bill for the pupils, but the big issue is that the sense of community is affected by the fact that the kids are bussed out and spend an hour and a half travelling to school.