Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Cathaoirleach for selecting this item for debate this evening. I wish to share the matter with Senator Kitt.

I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Treacy, to the House. He has a personal interest in this item. The Minister of State is aware that since Senator Kitt and I first raised this matter here on 18 October 2006, the Minister for Education and Science and the Department have made very little progress in determining what can be done for Kinvara. The parents and management board, and all concerned in the south Galway community have made a submission to the Department of Education and Science and the Minister asking for the continuation of second level education in Kinvara rather than the closure of a school. While the Minister and Department did not close the school, the ball is in the Minister's and Government's court to deliver second level education and not to allow the crisis to develop in south Galway that will follow the closure of this long-standing and esteemed school.

The Minister and the Department received a full and comprehensive report about Kinvara which has been well documented. It is unfair on all involved, parents, staff and students in the Kinvara area to be left in limbo because no decisions have been taken. The review has, we believe, been undertaken and hopefully is on the Minister's desk. It now behoves all to make a decision that there will be second level education in Kinvara. It is a growth area. How is it that the recent national development plan promises large expenditure on roads, rail services, water and sewage systems and so on yet we are closing a school in South Galway? The Minister of State, as a representative of that constituency, has an obligation to nail his colours to the mast and say this cannot happen. The Minister for Health and Children approached the Minister for Education and Science for a school in her constituency and it was delivered immediately. That is what we expect from the Minister of State.

How can a Minister for Education and Science preside over the dissolution of the board of management for a viable working school in Kinvara? The board was dissolved when it was due for renewal. I cannot understand how the Minister allows the school to continue to function without a board of management. It is urgent that she reinstate a board or provides for one to be elected.

On 7 December 2006 I wrote to the Minister for Education and Science asking her as an interim step to lease the facilities from the Sisters of Mercy at a reasonably attractive rate to ensure continuity of intake in September of this year. I was a member of a deputation which included the Minister of State and members of the local community, of the staff and board of management, and parents. I have received only an acknowledgement of the letter but not the reply which was promised although this proposal could be a useful solution.

The Minister of State knows the people of the area as well as I do. They want continuity of intake in Kinvara September so that there will be no gap in education provision. The surrounding schools in Gort and Callasanctius do not have the space to take in the students from Kinvara if the school there closes. They have applied to the Department over the past three or four years for extensions which have not been granted. This is one of the biggest growth areas in the country, as the Minister of State is aware. In Ballindereen, where there is a school catchment area, there is 48% growth which is accelerating. That is only one figure. I ask the Minister of State as a representative of the constituency to make the proper representations to the Minister to ensure that an early solution to this problem.

Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I appreciate that the Cathaoirleach has allowed me to raise this issue because it is unique for him to allow two Members from one constituency to raise a common issue. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, who is the most important man in our constituency, for coming into the House.

Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

That puts it up to him.

James Bannon (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

He will deliver.

Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

We held a meeting with the Minister for Education and Science on budget day, 6 December last, with parents, teachers, and public representatives from Galway and Clare because this problem affects north Clare too. I wish to raise a slightly different point from that raised by Senator Ulick Burke. We brought what I believe was new information to the Minister that day. I would like the report to be made available as quickly as possible. There is a significant increase in population in this area as census figures for housing development there indicate. There is no space for these students in the Callasanctius college in Oranmore or in Gort community school. The Minister for Education and Science and her Department have a responsibility to find places for students if there is no intake for them in Kinvara next September.

Any information provided to the Department is fact. There has been no attempt to pillory the Sisters of Mercy or to blame the Minister or the Department for what has happened. A diplomatic mission is required to try to get the college to agree to take in first year students next September, or to have the college leased or, better still, sold to the Department if that were possible. This college has a fine track record and has won many awards and its transition year has started.

I hope education will be very much to the forefront in the national development plan and in the context of any investment that is made. The part of south Galway to which I refer is badly in need of investment in education, which is clearly evident in primary schools in Kinvara and the surrounding areas.

A public meeting is to take place in Kinvara on Friday next. The people that will attend would like answers to the questions we have raised. I thank the Minister of State for coming before the House and I hope he will be able to provide an update on what is happening in respect of this school.

Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Senators Kitt and Ulick Burke for raising this matter. I welcome the opportunity to outline the position of the Department of Education and Science regarding the provision of post-primary education in Kinvara, County Galway. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Hanafin, who is out of the country on official business.

In October 2006, the trustees of Seamount College, namely, the Sisters of Mercy, announced their intention to withdraw as providers of education in the Kinvara area and to close the college. Seamount College is a voluntary secondary school and decisions such as this are within the remit of the patron body, the Mercy Sisters. The trustees informed the Department of Education and Science that closure was to be on a phased basis, with no intake of first year pupils from September 2007, culminating in a full closure in 2012 and thus allowing the junior students to have a transition year, if feasible, and complete their leaving certificates thereafter. The trustees also confirmed directly to the Department that the current site at Seamount College will not be available for the provision of post-primary education once the college closes after 2012.

Following the announcement of a phased closure by the trustees, a group of local parents met the Minister and representatives of the Department of Education and Science and outlined their concerns. Officials of the school planning section of the Department also met separately with representatives of Gort community school who outlined their concerns in relation to the trustees' announcement.

The Department's main role in respect of a decision by a patron body to close a school is to ensure that the best interests of the pupils are catered for in the period leading up to the closure and that there will be sufficient places in existing schools in the general area for pupils who would have normally enrolled in the closing school.

The examination of the information received is currently under way in the Department of Education and Science. As part of this examination, an analysis is being carried out on matters such as population growth, demographic trends, current and projected enrolments, recent and planned housing developments and the capacity of existing schools to meet the immediate demand for pupil accommodation. I assure the House that it is being dealt with as a priority matter by officials in the Department at the direction of the Minister, Deputy Hanafin.

This is a complex matter and it can be resolved only by flexibility on all sides. In particular, the Mercy order has made a unique contribution to the development of education for over a century, including in the Kinvara region. I publicly appeal to the order on behalf of the students, teachers and parents in the wider Kinvara area to ensure the necessary space and time is provided to ensure that second level education remains a permanent and integral part of the community there for the century ahead.

I again sincerely thank Senators Kitt and Burke once again for raising this matter in respect of our constituency.

Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Minister of State said that there will be "sufficient places in existing schools in the general area for pupils who would have normally enrolled in the closing school". This clearly means the Department has effectively washed its hands of the matter.

Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I made a complete statement on behalf of the Minister for Education and Science but the Senator selected a part of a sentence relating to the analysis being carried out by officials of her Department. Carrying out such analysis has been standard procedure since the Department was first founded and it is the responsibility of those involved to provide the Minister with a complete picture in due course. We must await the outcome that emerges when everything has been considered; no more and no less.

Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

It is an indictment of the Government's failure.

Noel Treacy (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The Senator should not misinterpret what I said.