Seanad debates

Tuesday, 6 November 2018

Commencement Matters

School Accommodation Provision

2:30 pm

Photo of Lorraine Clifford LeeLorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister to the Chamber and I congratulate him on his appointment to the Department of Education and Skills. I look forward to working with him over the coming months and years or however long the Administration remains in office. I am based in north County Dublin where there are many educational issues. I already been in correspondence with the Minister on a number of these and I look forward to engaging with him constructively over the coming months.

Today I want to raise the specific issue of St. Joseph's secondary school in Rush, County Dublin. Rush is a vibrant young growing town on the coast with one secondary school.Currently, there is a crisis facing the school and the town due to the fact that all the school places in first year for 2019 have been allocated and there are 102 children who have not been allocated a place. They are on a waiting list. This trend is set to continue in 2020, 2021 and after that given the current figures for students in the primary schools in the town. It is a very serious situation. Ultimately, the school needs a new school building because the current building is not fit to cope with the numbers at present and certainly not into the future. For example, there is no library in the school, no physical education, PE, hall and the science and woodwork rooms are undersized. I ask the Minister to work with the board of management and the principal to move forward with the plans for the new school.

However, to deal with the impending crisis in the town of Rush the school has made an application to the Minister for four extra prefab classrooms so the 102 children on the waiting list can be offered places for 2019. I ask the Minister to prioritise the application so the school can have certainty. There is great distress in the town. People want their children educated in their community and town. The neighbouring towns of Lusk and Skerries are also facing crises relating to oversubscription so it is not possible for the children to travel to those nearby towns. St. Joseph's has an excellent reputation in the town. It has a 100% rate of progression to third level or apprenticeships. It is a DEIS school and it has strong links with the Trinity Access programme. There is a very good community spirit around the school and it has links to various clubs and groups in the community. I ask the Minister to examine that application urgently to allow these children and their families to take part in the school community, to be educated in their own community and to give the school some certainty. He should then move on to considering a new school building for St. Joseph's in Rush.

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir as ucht an cheist seo a ardú. Aontaím léi go bhfuil an-tábhacht ag baint leis an ábhar seo. I thank the Senator for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to clarify the current position relating to my Department's plans to meet the demand for school places in the Fingal area and in St. Joseph's secondary school, Rush. My predecessor, Deputy Bruton, announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the four years from 2019 to 2022. This announcement follows nationwide demographic exercises carried out by my Department on the future need for primary and post-primary schools across the country. The four-year horizon will enable increased lead-in times for planning and delivery of the necessary infrastructure.

This announcement included three new post-primary schools to be established in the Fingal area as follows: a new 1,000 pupil post-primary school to serve the Donaghmede-Howth D13 school planning area to be established in 2019; a new 800 pupil post-primary school to serve the Blanchardstown west D15 and Blanchardstown village D15 school planning areas as a regional solution to be established in 2020; and a new 800 pupil post-primary school to serve the Donaghmede-Howth D13 school planning area to be established in 2021. In addition to the new schools announced, my Department’s capital investment programme also provides for devolved funding for additional classrooms for existing schools where an immediate enrolment need has been identified. The requirement for new schools will be kept under ongoing review and, in particular, would have regard for the increased roll-out of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040.

With regard to St. Joseph’s secondary school, my Department received an application for additional accommodation from the school. I am pleased to advise the Senator that it recently issued approval, in principle, to the board of management for the rental of two science laboratories, one technical graphics-design communication graphics room and one general classroom, as an interim measure, pending delivery of the permanent school building. The Senator will also be aware that a major building project to provide a new replacement school building for St. Joseph’s secondary school, Rush, is included in my Department's six-year construction programme. A site is required for this purpose and this is currently being pursued.

Photo of Lorraine Clifford LeeLorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail)
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It is very good news that the Minister has issued approval in principle for the additional temporary accommodation.I take his point that a site for a new school building is being actively pursued but I put it to him that this should be a matter of urgency because the enrolment figures for the primary schools in the town of Rush show that next year there will be a similar level of demand. It is not a once-off and, as a result, more and more temporary accommodation will be required on a very small site. There are already 17 prefabs in place there. When the four new units are added in, there will be 21 prefabs. The school is urgently needed. I ask that this be made a priority. A lot of housing is being built in Fingal.

The Minister referred to Donaghmede and Blanchardstown. They are not anywhere near Rush; they are significant distances away. The people of Rush do not have any connection with Donaghmede or Blanchardstown and would not be sending their kids to either location. I ask the Minister to keep Rush and north Fingal, the area in which I live and in which the youngest and fastest-growing population in this country resides, in his thoughts.

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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I absolutely take the important issues the Senator has raised very seriously. We have to plan for the future. The context for planning does not relate only to schools but to housing. Where there will be more housing, there will be additional pressures. As part of the ongoing conversation regarding where people are going to live and go to school and how they will travel to school, I take the Senator's point. Fingal is a big geographical area and there are more than 8,000 places in post-primary schools there alone, which gives one a glimpse of the population dynamic that exists.

I also accept what the Senator stated in the context of ensuring that this matter is kept on the radar. A number of her colleagues have also raised this issue with me. In my short time in this new post I have seen that the pressure on high-population areas to ensure that they have quality educational centres is very important to the politicians who represent those areas. However, I want to work in tandem with the different frameworks that we have including the capital plan for the period 2016 to 2021. Obviously, we also have the ten-year capital plan. The latter provides more than €8.4 billion for education, which is double the money provided in the previous ten years. All of that funding will be needed. Pressure is coming on the sector. When it comes to land acquisition, as prices rise we have to ensure that we get in there as competitively as possible, although when a need is identified and increases in population are projected, I will certainly pay very close attention.