Seán Kyne (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank colleagues in Fianna Fáil for tabling this motion.

Being in elected politics since 2004 at council and Oireachtas level, last year was the most difficult I have come across with regard to school enrolment pressures. This coming year also looks somewhat challenging. Hopefully, it will not be as bad. However, I had not experienced this before and certainly not to this level. I am concerned that the issue will be with us for a period of time.

The pressure and stress on parents and, of course, their children is huge. When youngsters come into being teenagers, it is a vulnerable time for them.Their friends are talking about what school they will go to and they are staying quiet because they are not sure yet what school they will go to. I try to reassure parents by saying that these things always work themselves out, that there will be a school place and that the Department and the school community will come together and ensure their children have places, but that it may take time.

Sometimes the issue is resolved within a month. A lady came to see me in the autumn and the issue was resolved before Christmas, but we had a few cases last year. In one case it was almost September before a school place was found and in another case it was November before the child got a school place. In the latter case a school had to be mandated to provide a place. The issue from the schools' point of view is that they have waiting lists and they cannot be seen to push someone ahead of other children on the waiting list. I understand that. Parents know all these things. They watch the figures and see. However, we have a situation where some children are on a waiting list to move to a different school, yet there are other children who have no school at all. In that case, there was an intervention and it was demanded or requested of the school to ensure the child who had no school place got a place ahead of others. That is important and the right thing to do.

Is it to the detriment of parents to indicate that their children have mild autism? Is that something parents should disclose or should they try to get the school place first and only then - once they have the place - say that their children have mild additional requirements? I am concerned that in certain schools it may not be to the child's or parent's advantage to disclose that. That is a concern I have from experience.

I have raised issues in my community, Moycullen, which has a growing population. The overall parish - not the village itself, but the parish - has a population of more than 5,500 people. There is no secondary school. Pupils travel to Galway city, Oughterard, Spiddal and Knocknacarra. That has been the tradition. I went to school in Galway city, but there is now a growing demand for a secondary school in the community. When I raised this a number of years ago, I was told there were sufficient places in Galway city and that it was not an issue. Last year, when I raised it again, I was told that the Department acknowledged there were now pressures in Galway city and that it was working to provide additional school places. It was indicated that there will be a shortfall of 500 school places, more so on the eastern side of the city towards Athenry. However, those things have knock-on effects because if you cannot get a child into one school, you will keep looking at other schools. Now is the time to look at the needs of the Moycullen area.

I note the motion calls on the Government to use the data available to the Department's advance planning unit, such as house building and child benefit figures, to predict shortages of places. I welcome that, but I thought it was what was done anyway. I thought that the Department's model uses the data, especially registrations of births, the issuance of social welfare or PPS numbers and such things, to indicate where the population growth is. This is not easy because we do not mandate that someone go to a certain school. People may travel to go to the school their father or mother went to, which may not be the closest school. It may be across town. Teachers may also bring their children to school, which somewhat skews the numbers. I do not envy the work of the planning unit in trying to fit these pieces together. People always want to go to what are perceived to be the best schools. The best or most popular schools keep changing so it is hard to manage those things. I will not name any places in Galway because they are all great schools, but there is a perception that some of them are better than others. People want to go to those schools and that creates problems.

This is an important motion. It is a stressful time for parents and their children when they cannot get a school place and the Department needs to try to do better.