Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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On 22 May, the 40 or so staff of the Newpark Academy of Music, in which there are approximately 600 students, were informed in a shock and unexpected notification that the school was to close. Those staff will lose their jobs and those 600 music students will no longer have a school. The Newpark Academy of Music has been operating for 45 years serving the community and doing outreach programmes. It is located on the Newpark Comprehensive School grounds. It serves the school community, but also people beyond the school community. It is a registered not-for-profit charity. The Minister of State can simply imagine the shock for students, their families and the staff over losing their jobs and their school. Shockingly, they were told this was going to happen at a week's notice. They were told on 22 May that the school and their jobs would be gone on 29 May. This is an absolutely unbelievable and inexplicable decision made by the board.

The only explanation that has been given is something to do with trading and financial conditions, although there is no indication that there is any financial difficulty with the school, or certainly no explanation to that effect has been given to anybody.

The fact that the workers have only been given one week's notice seems to be, without question, a breach of the employment Act because there is supposed to be a 30-day consultation period if more than ten workers are let go in a liquidation. One of the board members is the principal of Newpark school who, to date, has not engaged in any meaningful communication with the staff to give any explanation as to why any of this has happened.

I should say that a number of the staff and former pupils are in the Gallery. Possibly as a result of my raising the issue with the Taoiseach yesterday, when I flagged that this debate would be happening today, staff received a notification indicating there would be a meeting at 8 p.m. this evening, which is the same time as the end-of-year concert. That is quite extraordinary. You would have to think games of a not-nice kind are being played with a shocked and devastated staff.

I am asking, as I asked the Taoiseach yesterday, for urgent intervention from the Government. I remind the Government that it has a very explicit commitment to providing access to music, art and culture in the education system, in schools and for young people. I do not have time to quote the programme for Government extensively, but it refers to expanding "Creative Schools, ensuring that every child in Ireland has access to tuition ... in art, music, drama" and ensuring "that it continues beyond the life of Creative Ireland and will work with the Department of Education to achieve this", etc. The Departments of Education, arts and enterprise, and possibly the Department of local government, all have a stake in this. I am asking for an urgent cross-departmental intervention to find out what is going on and to stop this closure. We are supposed to be expanding access to the arts, music and so on for young people in education. The idea that this closure would go ahead, these people would lose their jobs and the 600 students would lose their music school is unacceptable. I asking for urgent Government intervention on this.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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The Minister for Education, Deputy Foley, sends her apologies as she cannot be here. I will give the response on the Minister's behalf. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter as it gives me the opportunity to provide an update to the House on the current position and understanding regarding the recently announced closure of Newpark Academy of Music.

Newpark Academy of Music is a private academy located in Melfield House, a 200-year-old building on the grounds of Newpark Comprehensive School in Blackrock, County Dublin. The building has hosted the academy since 1979. While the academy uses the building on this property, which is in the ownership of the Minister for Education, the academy itself does not fall under the remit of her Department.

The Department of Education was recently made aware of the decision by the board of the academy to cease operations. The Department's understanding is that this decision was made based on operational and financial concerns on the part of the academy. The Department was not involved in the decision to close Newpark music school. It is a stated policy of the Department of Education to encourage and support the use of school facilities for wider community and recreational uses, where appropriate. It should be underlined, however, that the primary role of the Department of Education is to cater for and deliver primary and post-primary educational needs in any locality. It is important to recognise the distinction in relation to the privately owned academy.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I have to be honest. That is a shocking response. It is a case of "Pass the buck; it has nothing to do with us."

It is a pity the senior Minister is not here. As I said, this is also about arts and culture and the commitment of the Government to ensure access for young people to those things. The Minister said the school is a private entity. It is a not-for-profit registered charity that has the principal of the school on its board. This is, therefore, a community service for students and young people to access music.

I ask the Minister of State to think, for a moment, what the world would be like without music. I am sure he enjoys music. It makes the world a better place. How does he think music gets produced? It is because somebody teaches people how to play musical instruments and learn about music. We need more access to it and the Government has committed to give access to all young people and students in a collaboration between the Department of arts, the Department of Education and local authorities. All of this is mentioned in the programme for Government.

The programme for Government states that the Government will "Foster further collaboration between local authorities and local arts organisations through Creative Communities" and work with the Department of Education to expand access to the arts. A school closes, with 40 people, some of whom have been working there for decades, losing their jobs with a week's notice, and the Minister of State says it has nothing to do with the Government. Seriously, the Minister of State should have a bit of respect for people who are shocked and upset that they have lost their jobs. He should show some commitment to the arts, young people, music, the community that will be hit by this and the programme for Government.

I appeal to the Minister of State not to give me a tick-box, "it has nothing to do with us" response. I ask for an intervention for the community, the students and the workers who are being treated inexplicably and to look beneath the bonnet of this because there is no reason to believe there is any major financial difficulty with the school. It was self-financing.

I ask the Minister of State to do better than that. If he does not know the answers, will he bring the matter upstairs to the Ministers for arts, Education and the local government? The workers' rights issues involved also bring in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I fully understand and appreciate the concern raised in relation to the decision to close Newpark Academy of Music. No disrespect was shown. I was simply setting out the factual position that the academy does not come under the Department of Education's remit. I have no doubt the decision has been devastating for all of those involved. That said, the role of the Department of Education is to support, fund and deliver primary and post-primary education in the State. In addition, the decision to close the academy was not made by the Department. I will bring the Deputy's comments to the attention of the senior Minister.