Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I also want to add my condemnation of the collusion found by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland in connection with loyalist murders in 1990. That would be a good topic for a debate in this House.

I want to talk about the impossible situation in which multiple families in Carpenterstown find themselves because the Archdiocese of Dublin insists on prioritising a date of birth admissions policy for primary schools over a siblings-first policy. I know this is well intentioned but it is causing havoc for families.

We have a very popular school in Carpenterstown, St. Patrick's National School, Diswellstown, which is perennially over-subscribed but there are other primary school places in the area, according to the Department, which makes calls to add an additional or fifth junior infants class at St. Patrick's for 2022 very challenging at the moment. Children who may not get in this year will either have to go to another school or wait another year. That might sound simple to some people but I can assure the House that it is not simple.

Families with children already in the school cannot be in two places at once. They cannot spend twice the time dropping children. Parents have commitments too. How and when are they supposed to work? Life for busy families is squeezed enough already. It is not just the practicalities that hurt families. We invest our time and our trust in our children's schools and in becoming part of the school community. It is impractical and insensitive to split siblings up between primary schools for eight formative years of their lives and expect their families to manage two schools, two ethoses, two uniforms, two drop-offs and two school communities. That does not even sum up the entirety of this issue.

A total of 13 children on the waiting list at the moment are at the age where they have used their two years of early childhood care and education, ECCE, and are not entitled to any more. Even if they held back for a year, they still would not be entitled to it because of the rules. The local childcare facilities have no space for these children because they prioritise ECCE and we are under-supplied. There is literally nowhere for these children to go. Another school is not a solution and keeping them home certainly is not a solution. Something has to be done. In areas like Carpenterstown, where schools are over-subscribed, we have to change to siblings-first admission policies or we fail families.