Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of admissions policies in primary schools in Dublin, as set out directly by the archdiocese. Unfortunately, public representatives, the Minister for Education and even boards of management in many cases do not have influence over this. There has been a break from the "sibling first" policy, and I for one am not in favour of it. Some families in Castleknock and Carpenterstown will find out this week that the younger children in their family may not be able to go to school with their older siblings unless the parents want to wait until their children are five and a half or nearly six. Can anyone who is a parent or who empathises with family life tell me the logic of this? It will potentially involve two school drop-offs and pickups, two sets of school rules for small children within the one house, two different uniforms, two different training days to be juggled, two different family contributions and raffles, two different parent-teacher associations, special occasions done in different ways and different dress-up days and Christmas concerts.

Whenever a small family starts to send the children to school, the parents really buy into the ethos of the school and think very carefully about it. I cannot explain the logic of this change because it is ludicrous to me. "Sibling first", to me, means siblings first. It does not depend on age or undersubscription in the school. Parents know the appropriate age at which to send their children to school and when they are ready to go to primary school. We should be doing everything we can to keep families, especially those with small children, together in the same school rather than sending them to different schools. This is an additional and completely unnecessary stress for families. I urge Members to look at the admissions policies of their local schools and write to the archdiocese if those policies affect the people in their area.