Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. I know she is under time pressure this morning but we appreciate her being here today. I acknowledge the work of the former Minister of State, Deputy Madigan who had special responsibility for special education and inclusion. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton is taking on that role.

I very much welcome this Private Members' motion tabled by Fianna Fáil on school enrolment. The Minister spoke about a number of elements in her opening statement. She mentioned investment and how 100,000 additional new places are coming at primary and post-primary levels. That is an incredible achievement during this Government. She also spoke about the additional classrooms for special educational needs, of which there will be 150 and then she spoke about the planning system.

I might bring it back to areas that are still under pressure. This focused a lot on post-primary, and particularly city and urban areas, but the Minister will be aware that in smaller towns, there are still pressures at primary school level. Something we have often spoken about is how the building of new schools for existing schools is a challenge. Scoil an Chroi Naofa is still going through design stage. What will the Department of Education do to support principals who are going through this process where it has taken 27 years and is still not at stage 3? That is a real challenge. While we are looking at the national development plan which is expanding this. The Minister has visited Ballinasloe and seen the wonderful new classrooms in Creagh National School and St. Teresa's Special School. Again St. Teresa’s has approval for a new school but is still working from an old space. The Minister has noted many positives here but it is a national development plan. It is balanced regional development. I want to see how towns can expand.

The Minister mentioned residential construction and said it was fully factored in. How is the linkage happening between the local authorities and planning and the Department of Education? I have not seen how we plan ahead so well in an integrated way in my local area.

The Minister said first year enrolments in post-primary peaked this year and will decline next year. Has she any additional information on the regional side of that? Are there parts of the country where that is the case? I want to understand that. We speak here at a national level but the problems come down to local level where schools and post-primary sometimes have challenges. I welcome the amalgamation in my area of two schools that are coming together and the Department of Education is working with them on that.

I thank the Minister for her time. I am sharing time with Senator Currie who is doing a lot of work on this.