As three Deputies are offering on this matter, each speaker has one and a half minutes.
Adjournment Debate.
Child Care Services.
A minute and a half is very little time. If I had known that, I probably would have withdrawn the matter and resubmitted it at a later date.
I wish to raise the issue of the replacement of staffing funding for community child care services with the proposed community child care subvention. The change will have serious consequences, especially for rural child care facilities. Currently, 21 community groups provide sessional, full-day and equal opportunity school-age child care in County Limerick. A further 11 groups have recently received funding under the equal opportunities child care scheme and national child care investment programme or are in the process of applying for such funding. The County Limerick community child care forum feels the introduction of the new scheme will result in inadequate child care provision and that children from disadvantaged backgrounds will be segregated from their peers. It is also felt that the introduction of bands A, B and C, as proposed, will lead to classification of parents, thereby reinforcing the social class stigma. Further, the scheme will reduce the level of funding available to community child care services which are already experiencing shortfalls.
Under the community child care subvention scheme, children whose parents are in receipt of social welfare benefit will be subvented to attend community care services. The process will require parents to complete a form outlining PPS and social welfare details which will be available to those of their peers and neighbours who are organising a local scheme. The form will be submitted to child care services and the office of the Minister of State with responsibility for children and the Department of Social and Family Affairs who will determine if a child is eligible for subvention. According to the type of social welfare being received, a parent is labelled "A", "B" or "C". Subvention is made in respect of categories A and B but not C.
The proposed scheme raises many serious issues. It is calculated on foot of case studies in the mid-west that many child care facilities will be put out of commission.
I am delighted the Minister of State, Deputy Brendan Smith, is present as I have written to him on the matter previously, as, I am sure, have many other Deputies. The Minister of State must address the changes he is making to the circumstances of low income parents who are dependent on community child care facilities to facilitate their access to work. It is these parents who have raised their concerns with me and told me how they have benefited enormously for the last six or seven years from the availability of valuable community child care centres. The centres are community-based, accessible and low cost and they facilitate those who otherwise would be unable to enter employment. These parents will be squeezed out by the changes the Minister of State proposes to implement from next January. They will be unable to avail of prohibitively expensive private child care and their only option, as some have suggested to me, will be to become welfare dependent once more. Many of them do very valuable work in the community.
Child care facilities were intended originally to allow people to return to education and work and the proposed changes represent a backward step. The Minister of State mentioned in his letter family income support, but such support cannot meet the cost of child care. I ask the Minister of State to address the circumstances of parents on low incomes who will be severely affected by the proposed changes.
I submitted the matter for consideration last week on foot of a heavily attended public meeting in my constituency at the Woodlands House Hotel in Adare. The meeting on the introduction of the new child care subvention scheme was attended by 250 to 300 child care providers operating within the community child care service as well as by parents. The groups in question are grateful to the Government and its predecessor for the capital funding which has been made available to build very fine community-based crèche facilities. A number of crèches in my constituency have received very significant funding, including €1.2 million for St. Coleman's community crèche in Kilcoleman, €1.4 million for Broadford community crèche in Broadford, Charleville, and €1.7 million for Rathkeale community crèche. A further crèche is under construction in Banogue, County Limerick, with a capital grant of €525,000. The funding is very significant. Operators, children and parents benefit from the grants as no capital or mortgage repayments are factored into child care costs.
Interested parties are saying that the subvention scheme has not been the subject of proper consultation and will create an urban-rural divide and that the existing system works against integration. The proposed scheme will compromise job security and lead to high staff turnover with a resultant lack of continuity of care.
I thank the Deputies for raising this important matter.
The main supports the Government makes available to parents to assist them with their child care costs are child benefit and the early child care supplement. The latter payment recognises the higher child care costs of pre-school children, is the responsibility of my office and alone amounts to expenditure of over €400 million in a full year. These payments are universal and benefit all parents regardless of income, labour market status or the type of child care they choose. In addition to these universal supports, Government child care policy has also recognised the need to target additional supports at disadvantaged families. It is in this context that the equal opportunities child care programme was established some years ago with targeted support provided through the staffing support grant scheme.
Community-based, not-for-profit child care providers with a strong focus on disadvantage were awarded grant aid towards their staffing costs to allow them to operate with reduced fees to disadvantaged parents. Funding under the scheme was originally awarded for a limited period during which services were expected to move towards sustainability. The funding was subsequently continued to the end of 2007 where it was considered necessary to enable services to remain accessible to disadvantaged parents. Continuation funding was subject to the condition that tiered fee structures were implemented by the services in question.
Under the National Childcare Investment Programme 2006-10, the successor programme to the EOCP, a new scheme to support community child care services with a focus on disadvantage will be introduced on 1 January 2008 and will continue to complement the universal supports in place for all parents. The community child care subvention scheme has been allocated €153 million for the next three years, representing a 16% increase in funding over the EOCP staffing scheme. Under the new scheme, services will be grant aided according to the service they provide and the profile of the benefitting parents. In turn, the subvention received by the services will be reflected in the reduced fees for parents who qualify as disadvantaged under the scheme.
I am sure the Deputies will agree that the provision of additional targeted support for disadvantaged families is a necessary component of any equitable system for supporting families with the cost of child care. Any such targeted approach must have a cut off point and it was considered that the income limits for family income supplement were the most appropriate given the scale of the scheme and its focus. Deputies may be aware that the current FIS limit for a family with three children under 18 stands at €625 per week, while the minimum wage currently stands at €8.65 per hour. As of March 2007, the average industrial wage amounted to €615 per week.
It is considered that the new scheme will provide an effective framework for the continued targeting of additional resources towards disadvantaged parents and their children while continuing to support community child care services generally. The scheme has been informed by and takes account of a number of enhancements recommended by the report of the value for money review of the EOCP. These include the fact that the subvention to services will be more responsive to the level of service provided as well as the degree of parental disadvantage supported. The ceiling for funding which existed under the previous scheme is being removed. Account will also be taken of all operational costs of services rather than staffing costs alone. Services, including full-time, part-time and sessional ones, which are in some cases inaccessibly priced for disadvantaged parents will be available at more appropriate rates under the new scheme.
Existing EOCP staffing grant recipients who enter the new scheme will continue to be funded at their current level until July 2008. My office is currently engaged in a series of meetings with existing grant recipients to outline to them the details of the new scheme and to gather feedback from the services. A meeting with representatives of the city and county child care committees has already taken place.
I do not think any purpose would be served by suspending the introduction of the scheme. The more detailed and comprehensive data which will be generated by the new scheme between now and the end of December will be analysed by officials in my office, as was announced last July. If appropriate, any adjustments necessary to secure the best outcomes for child care services and for disadvantaged parents and their children will be considered by the Government in early 2008 and well in advance of the commencement of the new funding levels in July 2008. In the meantime, groups can continue to receive funding at their current rate up to the end of June 2008. To qualify for the continued funding, groups are required to submit the information required for the assessment of the impact of the new scheme by early November 2007 and I would appeal to them to do so. It is important to emphasise that there will be no changes between now and July 2008.
It is worth repeating this Government has built a formal child care structure virtually from scratch. Since 2000, we have created over 35,000 new child care places in the community and private sector and supported over 26,000 more. Under the EOCP, €500 million has been allocated from 2000-06, accounting for over 3,300 grants to a mixture of community and private providers. The successor programme, the national child care investment programme, of which the child care subvention scheme is a part, has been allocated €575 million over the next three years and is on target to create 50,000 additional child care places, with a greater focus on pre-school places for three to four year-olds and school age child care. In real terms, this Government will have spent over €1 billion of public money on the child care sector by 2010. Given that the new subvention scheme actually increases funding by 16% over the EOCP staffing scheme, I refute in the strongest possible terms the claim that the Government has suspended such support. Nothing could be further from the truth and, as I have noted, any adjustments which might be considered necessary will be considered by the Government once the relevant data has been analysed.
Rural Transport Services.
This is positive ageing week and I am pleased to have the opportunity to raise some key issues concerning older people. Yesterday I attended the launch of the mid-term review of the positive ageing cross-Border project in my home town of Monaghan. The project is the result of a strategic partnership between two of the largest older people's organisations in Ireland, Age Action Ireland and Age Concern Northern Ireland. It is an excellent example of what can be done on the ground to bring people together across the Border and to facilitate them collectively to enhance their lives as individuals and members of the community. The report of the positive ageing cross-Border project states that older people living in the Border counties, North and South, have failed to benefit from the peace dividend. Many are living in isolated areas with poor public transport and dwindling services. The report is based on consultation since January of this year with older people's groups from the nine counties straddling the Border.
Positive ageing cross-Border programme development manager, Barry O'Keeffe, has stated that although many of these people have remained in their Border region community throughout the worst of times and have solidly contributed to the life of their communities, now as we look to a new peaceful future on this island, older people in the region seem to have lost out on the peace dividend. Both Age Action Ireland and Age Concern Northern Ireland call on politicians on both sides of the Border to come together in collaborative cross-Border co-operation to seek solutions to these issues.
The first and most critical issue cited by Age Action and Age Concern is the pressing need for rural public transport. They have urged all political parties to unite and respond by expanding existing rural public transport services and taking a more integrated approach to rural and cross-Border transport issues.
Age Concern Northern Ireland director of community services, Alan Herron, said rural communities were witnessing a decline in rural living marked by the withdrawal of key services including post offices, banks, pharmacies, shops and transport services. He added that the social consequences of failing to significantly address these issues in rural Border regions will be grave.
Cross-Border forums attended by older people were organised in Monaghan, Newry, Omagh, Letterkenny and Carrick-on-Shannon. At those forums the project found that poor transport and road infrastructure in the region exacerbated rural isolation and rural depopulation.
Everyone has rightly welcomed the recent introduction of the all-Ireland free travel pass. That is something we in Sinn Féin, in common with older people's groups, have advocated for many years. However, many older people in rural areas still have no way of accessing free travel in practise because the public transport infrastructure is simply not there. Only today an issue was brought to my attention concerning a pensioner in my constituency who has had to repeatedly cancel medical appointments because he does not have his own transport and cannot avail of an appropriate public service. Similar issues which present from time to time reflect the reality on the ground. We do not have the necessary public transport infrastructure to meet people's needs.
Over-centralisation of transport infrastructure in Dublin and Belfast has had a negative impact on rural peripheral and isolated Border regions. People in rural Border areas suffer a double disadvantage as both their rural location and the division of services by the Border isolates them further. Many older people are faced with declining local public and private services and weakened community and family supports. For these reasons I urge the Minister for Transport and the Marine to initiate an effective public transport system for rural communities, especially so that older people can fully avail of free travel passes to help access essential services and to make possible more active and healthier lifestyles. The Minister also needs to co-ordinate this enhanced rural public transport system with his counterpart in the Executive in the Six Counties.
I want to echo the motto of the positive ageing cross-Border project which states, "Age has no borders". This is surely a reminder that, irrespective of our age or where we live, we are all ageing and must all be concerned with these issues regardless of man-made frontiers and generation gaps. I hope the Minister of State will have some good news for those who are listening.
I thank Deputy Ó Caoláin for raising this important issue, to which I will respond on behalf of the Minister for Transport and the Marine, Deputy Dempsey, due to his unavoidable absence. The programme for Government restates the commitment to rural transport that underpins the Department of Transport and the Marine's rural transport programme, RTP, which was launched last February. The new programme, which is administered by Pobal, is building on the success of the former rural transport initiative 2000-06 by putting that pilot initiative on a permanent mainstreamed basis with significantly increased funding provided under the programme for community transport groups to address social exclusion in their rural areas arising from unmet public transport needs.
The RTP is currently operational in all counties with the exception of County Louth, from which there was no application under the pilot rural transport initiative, and 34 community transport groups are currently funded under the programme. Some 93,000 transport services operated in 2006 and over 790,000 passenger trips were recorded on these services. The bottom-up approach developed during the pilot rural transport initiative demonstrated the effectiveness of the community and voluntary initiative and involvement in the provision of rural transport services. The RTP is building on that concept and the main drivers of community rural transport continue to be the local communities themselves. The Government's role is that of facilitator, helping local communities to address their transport needs through financial and administrative support while communities themselves take the lead in developing transport services to fulfil these needs.
The Government's continued commitment to the RTP is reflected in the inclusion in Towards 2016 of phased increases in the annual RTP allocation to about €18 million. The National Development Plan 2007-13 commits some €90 million to the RTP over its full term. The €9 million being provided for the RTP in 2007 is envisaged as leading to an increase in the frequency of existing services, extended coverage, and additional groups of customers accessing rural transport. In making specific allocations to the individual rural transport programme, RTP, groups from this funding, the Minister for Transport and the Marine has asked Pobal to work closely with the groups to maximise the impact of the funding as well as ensure continued value for money.
In addition to funding from the Department of Transport and the Marine, RTP groups also benefit each year from funding provided by the Department of Social and Family Affairs arising from the application of the free travel scheme to the initiative. Some RTP groups also benefit from local development funding by the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs. Most also generate additional funds from their own sources.
Pobal is now engaged in a process to extend the RTP on a phased basis with a goal of achieving nationwide coverage in due course. Initially this has involved consideration of the best structural arrangements to manage the RTP at local level into the future. In the short to medium term the primary focus is on building capacity within the programme to expand rural transport services by way of better services and wider coverage. Specific attention is being given to rural areas that do not currently have access to public transport.
Among other things, the mainstreaming of rural transport provision may present opportunities to enhance community-based cross-Border rural transport services, as Deputy Ó Caoláin said. With that in mind, the Department of Transport and the Marine and the Department for Regional Development in Northern Ireland are jointly supporting a research study into community-based transport services to local cross-Border communities. A European Union INTERREG IIIA programme grant will provide the major part of the funding for the study. This matter was discussed at the third meeting of the North-South Ministerial Council, NSMC, in the transport sector on 14 September 2007. The council welcomed the research study that is under way and agreed to consider the report and its recommendations at a forthcoming meeting of the NSMC in the transport sector.
I assure the House on behalf of the Minister for Transport and the Marine that the Department of Transport and the Marine, in conjunction with Pobal, will progress the development of the RTP on a nationwide basis as soon as possible. In doing so, the Department will pay particular attention to the unique circumstances of cross-Border communities.
Foreign Conflicts.
I welcome the time we have, however brief, to discuss the appalling tragedy that is unfolding in Burma. Given the time allotted, I must be succinct and so will offer a set of suggestions. We must establish how many people have died and how many have been injured. We must follow up BBC reports and find out the whereabouts of 4,000 monks who were arrested in Rangoon, removed to two places of detention, disrobed and manacled. It is reported that they are likely to be removed to northern parts of Burma.
We need to move beyond the mantra of the EU and its governments that amounted to a belief in constructive engagement. This meant one could continue to engage with the junta that was practising widespread abuses of human rights while imagining that gradual progress was possible. This policy has not worked, nor have sanctions been imposed by the EU because it is clear that the benefits derived by India, China, Thailand and others involved in the rape of Burma's resources undo any possible effects of such measures.
Up to 800,000 people in Burma may have endured forced labour at some point and there are also issues relating to the forced relocation of people. Ethnic minorities endure appalling treatment and the country has put up its shutters to the rest of the world. In 1988 3,000 people were massacred and most human rights organisations suggested the situation deteriorated again in 1996. Burma behind the Mask, edited by Jan Donkers and Minka Nijhuis, published in 1996, may be the best account, from within, of what took place.
The international community has been silent on Burma and this has been compounded by economic benefits derived by its neighbours. This cannot continue. Facilitating the junta at the Association of South East Asian Nations, ASEAN, meeting was a miscalculation, though it may have been made for the best of reasons by those who believed in constructive dialogue. The anticipated results have not occurred and I therefore believe that an international group should now be established to visit Burma. The EU should seek permission for a group to visit Burma to establish how many people have died, how many have been injured, how many of the 4,000 monks arrested in Rangoon have been relocated, the details of people who have endured forced labour and the position of the various ethnic and indigenous groups there. The worst that can happen is permission will be refused and that at least means the issue will stay alive.
We all condemn the appalling scenes we have witnessed in recent days of the use of force by the military junta in Burma-Myanmar in suppressing pro-democracy protests. The brutal regime has terrorised 50 million citizens of Burma for 45 years and a similar popular peaceful protest 20 years ago saw some 3,000 people executed. Nobody knows the true number of deaths in Burma in recent days but Associated Press figures suggest 200 people have been killed and up to 2,000 detained. Thousands of monks have been removed from monasteries and are being detained in areas away from the public arena.
The people of Burma are terrified and this is particularly evident now that the revered monks cannot protest on the streets. The response of the international community has been lethargic and reflects double standards as little more than condemnation and hand-wringing has been forthcoming from major countries in the East and West so far. For example, when strategic geographical and resource interests were involved in the Middle East, the United States was quick to raise the ante and intervene economically, with sanctions, and militarily.
Ireland gave the freedom of its capital city to the pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and should be to the fore in demanding urgent action by the EU and world community. We cannot simply condemn yet stand idly by. The United Nations special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, was given the run around in recent days as the junta in Burma clearly kept him away from trouble spots and proved unwilling to meet him until a semblance of normality had been restored. The meeting today, a peremptory 15 minutes, was a sham and the hope for dialogue between General Than Shwe and the pro-democracy movement was totally dashed.
The least we can expect from the international community is sustained pressure on China not to veto any UN resolution on this matter. As Deputy Michael D. Higgins said, the EU should promote a special group to visit Burma and inspect conditions.
I thank Deputies Higgins and Costello for raising this issue. On behalf of the Government, I welcome this opportunity to comment on the recent events in Burma.
The Government remains gravely concerned at the appalling situation in Burma. The people of Burma have made clear their demands for democracy, national reconciliation and an end to military dictatorship and the Irish Government and people stand firmly behind them. The regime has tried to quell the voices of the monks, nuns and unarmed civilians, peacefully demonstrating on the streets, through bullets, beatings, gassings, widespread arrests and brutal repression. We do not yet know the numbers killed, injured, arrested or missing, and we may never know them precisely. The regime has worked to cut off communications with the outside world in the hope of covering up what it has been doing, but it has not been able to hide the evidence of its brutal regime, nor the strength of discontent and opposition to its rule among the people of Burma.
The Irish Government has long taken a strong position on the situation in Burma. We have spoken out firmly on the issue for many years at the UN General Assembly and in all other appropriate fora. We consistently raise our concerns in meetings with ASEAN and other Asian countries. In international meetings where our Ministers and officials have encountered Burmese Ministers or delegations, we have used the opportunity to make clear, in a forthright manner, the views of the Government and people of Ireland.
Through our Irish Aid programme, we have provided some support for humanitarian causes and for the democratic process. We maintain close links with Burma Action Ireland and the small Burmese community in Ireland, and we provide some support for their activities. We have worked proactively to ensure that Burma remains high among the priorities of the EU and the UN and have supported discussions at the Human Rights Council, at the UN General Assembly and the Security Council.
In recent weeks, the Government has stepped up its action in support of the Burmese people. In the early days of the popular demonstrations, on 24 August, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, made a statement calling for the release of key democracy activists, and for the initiation of inclusive dialogue with opposition parties. As the situation intensified, he followed up with a statement on 24 September in support of the demonstrators, and appealed to the regime to exercise restraint, to release all political detainees and to initiate a process of dialogue and national reconciliation. Immediately following the widespread attacks on the unarmed demonstrators on 26 September, he forcefully condemned the use of force and called again for restraint, dialogue and reconciliation.
The Minister also called on ASEAN and other Asian countries, which may exercise influence on the Burmese regime, to do all in their power to protect the people of Burma, to encourage restraint, dialogue and reconciliation and to support the role of the UN and, in particular, an immediate visit to the country by the UN Secretary General's special envoy, Dr. Ibrahim Gambari. He followed up these statements by writing to the Foreign Ministers of China and India, calling for them to use their influence to stop the violence in Burma and encourage positive change. These messages were delivered to the ambassadors of China and India in Dublin and by our ambassadors in Beijing and New Delhi.
At the request of the Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, our ambassadors in the ASEAN region have made urgent démarches to the Governments of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand. Our ambassadors at the UN in New York and Geneva remain active in conveying these messages to Security Council members, ASEAN and Asian neighbours of Burma. We are pleased that these representations have received encouraging responses.
He should go to South Africa as well.
The Minister, Deputy Dermot Ahern, in his address today to the UN General Assembly in New York, will again highlight our concerns. He is taking every opportunity while at the General Assembly and in Washington to discuss the situation in Burma with the UN Secretary General, the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, and other leaders.
The situation in Burma is truly deplorable, but we believe that the events of the past few weeks represent a possible turning point. For the first time, ASEAN, as an organisation, has spoken out in condemnation of the brutality of the Burmese regime, expressing its "revulsion" at the violence used against unarmed demonstrators and calling for national dialogue and reconciliation. Similarly, the Government of China — which maintains very close links with the Burmese regime — is working behind the scenes with the military leaders and has spoken out more clearly than ever before in calling not only for calm and stability, but also for reconciliation and democracy.
The significance of these statements and actions of Burma's regional neighbours cannot be underestimated. The immediate effect of the pressure brought to bear on Burma by China and ASEAN countries was the agreement of the regime to grant a visa to UN special envoy, Dr. Gambari, and its agreement to allow him to meet democracy leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. He met today with the junta leader, General Than Shwe, and will meet Ms Suu Kyi again tomorrow, before returning to New York on Thursday, where he is scheduled to brief the Security Council. The Secretary General has advised the Minister, Deputy Ahern, that Dr. Gambari will return to Burma next month.
At the UN Human Rights Council, Ireland actively supported the EU's call for a special session on Burma, which took place today, and delivered a strong national statement. We very much welcome the strong resolution adopted by consensus at the Council today — including, significantly, by Burma's regional neighbours. Among other provisions, the resolution deplores the regime's violent repression of peaceful protestors, calls for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Burma to be fully respected and demands international access to the country to investigate the situation. We believe this sends the clearest of signals to the Burmese regime that the international community is prepared to stand together to ensure that the days of impunity are over. Ireland and our EU partners apply a range of sanctions and restrictive measures to Burma. Options for an extension of sanctions are under urgent consideration. It is expected that EU Ministers will consider this question at the next General Affairs Council on 15 October. A priority for us is to ensure that any new measures are targeted against the regime and do not cause further suffering to the people of Burma.
The Government continues to stand firm with the people of Burma at this time as, I know, do the people of Ireland. We will continue to monitor developments in Burma very closely and to work unrelentingly with EU, the UN and the countries of Asia and to keep the focus of the world on the plight of the people of Burma.
Will the Minister of State consider my proposal that a group from the EU should visit the country?
I will return to that point.
We will continue to demand that the Burmese military regime desists from further violence against its own people, releases all recent and longer-term detainees, including Aung San Suu Kyi, initiates inclusive dialogue with the democratic opposition and ethnic minorities, prioritises national reconciliation, and co-operates in full with the UN and the demands of the international community.
I thank the Deputies again for raising these issues and I will convey Deputy Higgins's request to the Minister.
I thank the Minister of State.
School Accommodation.
I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this matter and the Minister of State for taking it.
The trustees of Seamount College in Kinvara decided 12 months ago next week to discontinue the provision of education as education providers in Kinvara. That came as a great shock to the parents, school staff and community of Kinvara. We have waited practically 12 months for a solid commitment from the Department of Education and Science and the Minister to provide for the continuation of second level education in Kinvara.
I welcome the decision by the Minister, Deputy Hanafin, on 16 May, prior to the general election, to commit herself and the Government to the provision of second level education in Kinvara. I also welcome the decision of the trustees, the Sisters of Mercy, in response the Minister's decision, to grant a concession that they would allow an intake of first year students in September of this year. Despite the fact that this concession was granted as late as the first week in July, it is important to recognise that the parents of the area have confidence in the school, evidenced by the intake of first year students for this year.
Enrolments in national schools, as of today, in the catchment area of Kinvara are as high as 800. As recently as May of this year, the level of enrolments in the area was assessed, based on CSO figures, by the Department as being 779, but the level of enrolments has been even higher.
The population of the area has increased 7% year-on-year for the past five years and is likely to increase further in the coming years. The need for education provision in the area exists, a fact previously doubted by Department officials.
Will the Minister of State indicate if the Minister, the Department or the OPW has identified a site for the provision of a school in Kinvara? Sites have been on offer. Has the Department investigated the suitability of a site? If so, is it necessary to advertise for a site to be identified? It is important that the Department proceeds quickly and follows the procedures in place to avoid further delay in this instance.
I ask that the Minister clearly states that she is committed to the early start and fast tracking of the provision of a school in the area to ensure that the trustees can respond further by allowing a continuation of the intake of first year students until 2012 when they indicated they would withdraw from the provision of second level education in Kinvara.
The Minister of State, Deputy Michael Kitt, and Deputy Higgins, both having represented that area over the years, understand the need for the continuation of educational provision in this area of south Galway. I urge the Minister of State to reciprocate the positive response of the trustees. I acknowledge that the Minister has restored the board of management under what is termed an independent chairperson. All that has happened to date is positive. The onus is now on the Minister and the Department building unit to move quickly so we can work positively with the community, the staff, the board of management and parent committee to ensure we will continue to have second level education in the area. Everybody agrees the school can no longer remain a girls' only school, but that we will have a co-educational school. We are aware of the need in that part of County Galway as there will be a deficit of approximately 1,400 school places in the area by 2012. The continuation of an educational facility in Kinvara will help to avoid that crisis.
I thank the Deputy for raising this matter and welcome the opportunity to outline to the House the position regarding the provision of post-primary education in Kinvara, County Galway.
On 16 May 2007, the Minister for Education and Science announced the provision of a new second level school for the Kinvara area. This decision was and remains predicated on the Mercy Order, as trustees of Seamount college, accepting first year students each year until the end of the 2011-12 school year. Subsequent to the announcement by the Minister for Education and Science, the trustees did indeed accept first year students this September. The trustees in announcing their decision also indicated that their decision to close Seamount college by 2012 stands.
The Deputy will appreciate planning for a new school involves a number of processes which can take some time to complete, most notably the acquisition of a suitable site; the design of a building, the grant of planning permission, the seeking of tenders and construction. Many of these factors are outside the direct control of the Department. At present, the commission on school accommodation is continuing its work on the identification of accommodation needs in the south Galway area, including the position relating to provision in Kinvara. Further progression of a new second level school to serve the area will be developed having regard to the positions I have outlined.
I thank Deputy Burke once again for raising the matter. My Government colleagues, Deputies Michael Kitt and Noel Treacy, have also pressed the Minister on this issue, as have other Deputies from the Clare area.
Will the new school be in Kinvara?
The Dáil adjourned at 9.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 3 October 2007.