I am awaiting my colleague Deputy Enright, which will also give the Minister for Education and Science a chance to come into the House. I assume he is coming.
Adjournment Debate. - Schools Amalgamation.
I am representing the Minister.
It is very disappointing that the Minister for Education and Science has not come to the House for this important—
The Minister is on Government business.
It will be a short debate. This is very important Government business because the Government is, in essence, facilitating the closure of one of the most highly reputed secondary schools in the midlands, namely Patrician Col lege, Ballyfin. The Minister for Education and Science met the parents' council representatives last December and promised to get back to them having studied a report they produced. I thought the Minister might have elaborated on his review tonight.
Will the Minister for Education and Science stop this amalgamation immediately? The Department has decided to amalgamate two schools – what was the Patrician College, Ballyfin, with Portlaoise vocational school. It is an ill-founded and ill-conceived decision. It is a triumph for expediency over the public interest, namely the education of the children of the area. The decision is based on flawed assumptions in a report entitled the McCarthy report. There was no discussion, consultation or notice. Will the Minister indicate where the students who are now in Ballyfin College will go? What schools will they attend? In what part of County Laois will they receive their second level education?
I want the Minister to call off this folly immediately. There are simply not sufficient places available in the amalgamated school programme the Minister has put forward as an alternative. It is a very serious issue. I want the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, to convey the content of the contributions by me and my colleagues, Deputy Enright and Deputy Fleming, to the Minister in the morning with a view to stopping this ill-conceived amalgamation immediately.
I am disappointed the Minister for Education and Science is not in the House to hear this very important debate of an issue which affects the lives of many students in County Laois. The matter I put before the House is that Dáil Éireann is seriously concerned at the decision by the Minister for Education and Science to close Ballyfin College, Ballyfin, Portlaoise, County Laois, which is an excellent educational college with in excess of 500 pupils.
I call on the Minister for Education and Science to reverse this closure decision and confirm that it is intended that the college will remain open for future generations of students seeking second level education in County Laois. The decision by the Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government to close Ballyfin College is a major blunder. The Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Education and Science, Deputy Woods, in their combined foolishness, arrived at the collective decision to close this school.
I want the Minister of State to inform the Cabinet that the decision is wrong and I call on him to reverse it. The Fianna Fáil-Progressive Democrats Government has decided to close this excellent facility and deprive students in County Laois of a top class educational establishment. I query the lack of common sense evident in the decision to close this school. Investment is needed in post-primary education in Portlaoise for the development of second level education in the town.
I want the Minister of State to make a special effort to keep the school open for future gener ations. The closure of the school is like closing Trinity College, Dublin, University College Dublin or such schools across the country. Ballyfin College should remain open and I call on the Minister of State to make sure it is kept open for future generations.
I thank my colleagues, Deputies Flanagan and Enright, for raising the closure of the Patrician Brothers secondary school in Ballyfin. At this stage we must all look to the future, especially for the 535 students who attend the college. The Government has a legal, moral and constitutional obligation to provide classrooms and educational facilities for those 535 students. The only issue to be decided at this point is where the school should be located. Ballyfin College is located in a rural setting. It has been an outstanding success and the school should be retained in the Ballyfin area. The amalgamation with Laois VEC to form a new college in Portlaoise was carried out against the wishes of parents, teachers and everybody involved in education in Ballyfin. The Patrician Brothers are scaling back their involvement in education and are the least appropriate people to put forward proposals on an amalgamation with Laois VEC.
I ask the Minister to listen to the parents, teachers, students, the people of Ballyfin and the people of County Laois. As a Fianna Fáil TD, I will do everything in my power to fight the decision to force this amalgamation on the people of Laois. This cause is right and just and I look forward to speaking directly with the Minister on this matter tomorrow morning.
I thank all the Deputies for raising this matter as it affords me the opportunity to outline to the House the current position and the real facts regarding the proposed amalgamation of Ballyfin College and Portlaoise Vocational School into a community college under the aegis of County Laois Vocational Education Committee.
At the outset, I would like to set out for the House the background to this development. Ballyfin College is a co-educational secondary school situated about six miles outside Portlaoise town. For the purpose of educational provision, Ballyfin is included in the Portlaoise post-primary school catchment area. There are three other post-primary schools in the catchment, all located in Portlaoise, namely, Scoil Críost Rí, an all-girls secondary school; St. Mary's CBS, an all-boys secondary school; and Portlaoise Vocational School, the only co-educational school under County Laois VEC.
The majority of students who attend Ballyfin College are from the Portlaoise area. Of the 535 pupils currently enrolled in the college, about 300 are from that area. A substantial number of the remaining students come from primary schools in the adjoining Mountrath and Mountmellick catchment areas.
The trustees of the Patrician College indicated to the Department of Education and Science last year that they were not in a position to continue to provide post-primary education in Ballyfin. As an alternative, they proposed to phase out their involvement in post-primary education in Ballyfin and to participate instead in the management of an amalgamated community college with County Laois VEC. The trustees initiated this move. The Government did not have any hand, act or part in initiating it and it is ridiculous to blame the Government for this decision.
No.
The Minister is washing his hands of the matter.
Order, please.
I should emphasise that, as trustees of the Patrician College, the decision to withdraw from trusteeship and management of the school is a matter for the Patrician Brothers.
The Minister facilitated it.
It is not within the Minister's capacity, therefore, to reverse the decision taken legally by the trustees to close Ballyfin College.
The Tánaiste has a different view.
The issue for the Minister for Education and Science is how post-primary educational provision in the catchment can be provided to best effect, having regard to the Brothers' decision.
What about the students? The Minister should think about the students, not the Brothers.
Please allow the Minister to reply without interruption.
Taking all the above factors into account, the Minister is of the view that the appropriate course of action is to support the decision taken by the Patrician Brothers and the VEC to amalgamate into a new community college on the outskirts of Portlaoise.
An extensive building programme is planned which will deliver state of the art facilities to cater for the educational needs of the projected school going population of the Portlaoise area, including Ballyfin, into the future.
That is not good enough.
The Minister for Education and Science met with representatives of the Ballyfin Parents' Council last December and listened to their concerns.
And has done nothing in the meantime.
In the meantime, officials of our Department have also met with representatives of the parents and teachers at the school, whose objective is to retain a post-primary school in Ballyfin. The representatives were given the opportunity to submit to us their views regarding the proposed amalgamation. Their submission has been received and is currently being considered in the planning section of our Department. A report on this matter will be with the Minister shortly.
Will it be ready tomorrow?
At the request of Deputies Seán Fleming and John Moloney, the Minister has arranged to meet with a delegation representing the parents from Ballyfin College tomorrow.
I know this college well because my wife's cousins were educated there, and I am well aware of the situation. We have to live in the real world, however, and accept the responsibility of trustees and the fact that—
The Minister's cousin's children will not be educated there thanks to a decision of this Fianna Fáil-PD Government.
—they take decisions which impinge on the taxpayer and the Department of Education and Science. I suggest to the Deputies that they might approach the trustees and ask them to reconsider their position.
This is an excellent school that is being closed down.
I want to assure the House that the approach the Minister is adopting in relation to Portlaoise is intended to deliver state of the art facilities, based on a thorough assessment of the future educational needs of the area.
Keep this school open.
Deputies can be assured that as long as we are in office, we will take a positive attitude to what is in the interests of the children of the area.
There will be uproar in Laois if this school is closed.
We educated the nation.