Mark Wall (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House to discuss a very important matter for many people in the county in which I live, Kildare. There is no doubt there is a problem there. It is acknowledged by the Minister for Education in replies to my Labour Party colleagues over the last year or so, and the direct conversations I have had with the Minister and her office. In acknowledging the problem in her replies, the Minister stated it could be caused by different factors, including duplication of applications where pupils have applied for a number of schools in the same area and where pupils cannot get a place in their preferred school, while there are places in other schools in the town or area. Some towns have single-sex schools and while places are available in the school, they are not available to all pupils or they draw pupils from outside the local area. One would expect much or all of this information to be available. The Minister went on to say only until these issues are discussed with the relevant school authorities will the true extent of any capacity issues become known. Unfortunately, this is the reply or a version of it I have continued to receive for over a year now, and still parents are without places. The latest waiting lists range from 20 to over 40 in some schools. The Minister continues to tell me that she is engaging with patron bodies to identify particular capacity requirements for the forthcoming year. I sincerely hope that there is some good news today.

I have been involved in campaigns for new schools in the area that have still not commenced, although I acknowledge a number of extensions of schools in the Kildare south area. However, there is growing concern around what is happening with the proposed new 1,000 pupil school for the Curragh which we were told would include joint Educate Together patronage. Recent updates on this school tell us that the land deal is still at a sensitive stage. Perhaps the House can be given an update on that today.

I hope the Minister of State will give us some good news here today. I have been contacted by parents as well as young people who are very upset that they do not know what school they will attend in September.This is especially hard on the student, the young person, whose friends are aware of his or her school place and where he or she will be attending.

There are lessons to be learned here by the Department. The question put to me repeatedly is why Kildare County Council allowed all of these houses to be built without enough school places to accommodate the children in the families who came to live there? The south Kildare Educate Together secondary school campaign presented these projected growth figures to the Department a number of years ago. There was an obvious delay in acting upon them and there is no doubt about that.

We all welcome the school extensions and what we hope will be the urgent announcement on the new school in the Curragh, but that good news is a number of years away. Until then we need to create school places in existing schools and invest in these schools to accommodate that. We all await the Minister's response as to how this might be achieved.