Robbie Gallagher (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House this evening and I thank him for outlining the different sections of the Bill in great detail. The Fianna Fáil Party is pleased to support the Bill, which brings clarity to the issue of admissions for parents, teachers, schools, children and everyone else involved. As the Minister stated, the legislation is long overdue. It is good that we have finally reached this point.

Thankfully, the problem the Bill addresses does not affect the vast majority of schools. It could be legitimately argued that the principal issue here is a lack of resources. A small number of schools in urban areas such as Dublin and a few other pockets have a difficulty in that the infrastructure of the school simply will not accommodate the number of children seeking enrolment. The Department should be more cognisant of this problem and engage in better forward planning to project where population increases will take place. Perhaps the Minister will advance forward planning to enable us to look into a crystal ball, as it were, identify areas where the population is increasing above normal rates and ensure the physical infrastructure of schools can keep abreast of population increases. If that had been done previously, this legislation may not have been necessary. That being said, we have a problem for which the Bill probably a quick-fix solution. From that point of view, it is to be welcomed.

In my experience, the issue facing schools in my constituency is the opposite of the issue facing schools in urban areas. When schools open their doors for admissions every year they place public advertisements for students, as opposed to closing their doors to some students, which is very welcome. Every child, regardless of religion or nationality, is welcomed with open arms and there is open competition among the schools to attract children. One school principal told me that if Damien, the character from the film, "The Omen", arrived at his school at the age of four, he would be welcomed with open arms. It is a completely different picture from the position in certain oversubscribed schools. Thankfully, the issue arises in only a small number of schools but I appreciate that it must be dealt with.

It could be argued that if more classrooms were available to accommodate children in oversubscribed schools, the Minister and I would not be having this conversation. Once the legislation is passed, we should keep an eye on whether bringing children who are currently at the back of the queue to the front of the queue results in other children losing out. It will be interesting to see how that develops.

The Minister also noted he will have the power to designate a school place for a child with a special need, as defined by the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, and Tusla. This change is very welcome and I compliment all those involved in bringing forward the measure. It is important that the children concerned are accommodated in schools and it will be interesting to see how this develops.

The Minister referred to the minority of children from families of no faith. Everyone agrees that the Bill's proposals to provide for these children are to be welcomed.

The Gaelscoileanna are a work in progress, as the Minister outlined. I know the Minister had discussions with different Members of the Lower House with a view to trying to find a sensible consensus on that issue. I hope we will see a draft of his final proposals in that area on Committee Stage. It is important that a common sense attitude is adopted to selection in this area to ensure parents and children are not subjected to an excessively onerous procedure to classify their level of the cúpla focail.

The legislation will create an additional burden for schools. It is important that schools draw up admission policies and do so correctly. All of the work in this area must be done properly and in that regard I expect additional resources will be required from the Department to ensure school principals and boards of management are properly resourced and have the wherewithal to implement these provisions in a proper fashion. I hope the Minister will not be found wanting in circumstances where schools need additional resources of whatever kind. I am interested in hearing his views on that.

I thank the Minister for outlining the detail of this welcome Bill. Something needs to be done, especially for schools that are oversubscribed. Catholic schools, particularly in areas where schools are not oversubscribed, have always opened their doors to children and continue to do so.That is a point worth noting. For those schools that do have a problem, however, it is important that children are accommodated. It is to be hoped this legislation will ensure that is the case, but we must keep a watchful eye on it because once this legislation is implemented, the child who is at the back of the queue will go to the front of the queue and some other child will be pushed to the back. We must keep an eye on that because we cannot get away from the fact if school accommodation was able to keep pace with the growth in population in the areas concerned, we would not need this Bill and we would not be having this conversation. It is important that we monitor this and continue to resource schools, particularly those in areas with large populations that need additional accommodation. It is important that such schools are signposted in good time and sufficient financial resources are allocated to them to enable them to build on and accommodate all children, regardless of where they come from or what they believe in.