Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 May 2018
45. Deputy Martin Heydon asked the Minister for Education and Skills if the need for a new secondary school in south County Kildare will be kept under review; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22456/18]
View answerI have raised the need for additional provision of second level in south Kildare in the House several times. The Minister will be familiar with my having raised this point with him. People in south Kildare were very disappointed that we did not secure a new school in the last announcement. Notwithstanding the proposed extensions, we still believe the significant demographic pressures we face in the county, as well as the future projections of population growth in the county, mean we will need a new secondary school. Will the Minister reassure me that the Department continues to keep this under review?
I assure the Deputy that we will keep it under review. The process has been conducted in a fair and objective way across the country. It has taken a four-year horizon in terms of projected needs based on demography, local authority plans and so on.
Extra school places often are delivered by extending existing schools. It is not always the case that an area's needs must be met by establishing new schools. While the announcement did not include a new post-primary school in the case of south Kildare, there is additional capacity as approximately 1,700 school places will be provided when projects at the following four schools in this area are completed, namely, St. Conleth's Community College, Newbridge; Athy Community College, Athy; Cross and Passion Secondary School, Kilcullen; and St Paul's Secondary School, Monasterevin. A building project for the Patrician College, Newbridge is also included in my Department's six year construction programme.
However, in line with the ongoing review of school planning areas generally, I can confirm that my Department is currently reviewing provision at post-primary level across the school planning areas in the south Kildare area and it is envisaged that work in this regard will be completed in the coming weeks.
The new school committed to in respect of St. Paul's, Monasterevin, has seen plenty of delays in the past, not all of which were the Department's fault. We are united in getting that school delivered as quickly as possible. It is badly needed. Currently, pupils are travelling from Monasterevin to different towns because there is not enough capacity in St. Paul's and the conditions that everyone there must deal with are inadequate. The extensions to which the Minister referred are wholly necessary and those in Athy Community College, Cross and Passion Secondary School, Kilcullen and St Conleth's, Newbridge should be online in the autumn. Patrician College badly needs its extension. All these extensions need to be completed quickly and I ask that consideration be given to including extensions at the start of their planning process in the rapid build scheme. When this additional capacity is delivered, there still will be pressure on spaces in schools. There are significant plans for growth in south Kildare in Project Ireland 2040.
The Department must accept that there will be ongoing pressure for spaces into the future, even with the promised extensions.
Deputy Heydon and others have made the point about the pressure in areas like south Kildare to me previously. All decisions must be kept under close review because the population pressures and plans are changing quite rapidly. We recognise that and an undertaking has been given that south Kildare in particular will be examined because the pressures there are very significant and we have the data to prove it. Obviously that work has to be done before we can draw any conclusions.
There is an Educate Together campaign in south Kildare with which the Minister is familiar. A petition was signed by more than 2,500 people who want more educational choice at second level in south Kildare. I know that decisions on patronage are made after decisions on capacity in the context of new schools but we have challenges in how education is delivered at second level in south Kildare. Even after all of the promised extensions are built there will be schools like the Curragh post-primary where conditions are Dickensian. That school is not fit for purpose. Discussion on a new school building could centre on a new building for the Curragh post-primary school as opposed to a brand new, stand alone building. The Department of Defence, which is a co-patron for two primary schools on the Curragh camp, is open to considering other site options. We could be looking at a shared partnership model between Educate Together and the education and training board in a brand new Curragh post-primary school. No one in the Department of Education and Skills can argue that the current conditions for pupils at Curragh post-primary school are good enough. That option could be a solution to the overall demographic pressure. I ask that the Department continues to bear all of this in mind and to keep a very close eye on south Kildare. I will continue to raise this matter in the House because a new school is needed in south Kildare.
I will ask the Department to look at those elements in particular. Clearly there would be merit in accommodating a number of improvements in one project. As I said to Deputy Durkan earlier, in the more medium term we have set aside a substantial sum for the deep refurbishment and retrofitting of our older schools because we recognise that this is a challenge that we must meet over the next decade.
