Seanad debates

Tuesday, 28 July 2020

10:30 am

Photo of John McGahonJohn McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Senators Kyne and Joe O'Reilly. We are each taking two minutes. On school planning, I would be grateful if the Minister could check with the Department's forward planning unit to see if the Blackrock and Haggardstown area outside the town of Dundalk is outside their radar for new school development. Louth county councillors are going through the whole process of drawing up the county development plan. Now would be an excellent time to sit down with planners and staff in Louth County Council and in the Department's unit to make sure the proper zoning is there in the first place for new school buildings to be built over the next six to seven years.

It would also be important to carry out a survey of parents in the local area. It has been done previously. People input their Eircode postcode to show they are resident in that school area. There should be a survey of parents to find out what type of school they would like in their community, an Educate Together school, a community national school or a church-run school. This worked well three years ago in Faughart, where parents decided to transfer the national school to the patronage of Louth and Meath Education and Training Board.

I also want to raise the issue of the Teaching Council. Many citizens in Northern Ireland train to become teachers but it takes a long time for them to process the registration of their qualifications so they can be appointed to jobs here in the South. Whether a school is in Dundalk or Donegal, when we need so many new teachers coming in to work in September it is really important that we speed up the registration process so that schools can give jobs to teachers from across the Border

. On the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, UCAS, applications, students are given the calculated leaving certificate results on 7 September and on 11 September UCAS opens. It is important that we get more clarity on the appeals process for students who are not happy with their results on 7 September.

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