I appreciate the opportunity to raise this matter and I should like to make a direct appeal to the Minister to accede to the request of the City of Dublin VEC that a second level facility in the vocational area should be provided through Irish in the Ballymun area to serve the north County Dublin area as a whole.
This project was first mooted 18 months ago and the former Minister, Deputy Hussey, met a delegation from the area. It goes back even further to when a group of people in Ballymun got together and decided to form a scoil lán-Ghaeilge at primary level. The school proved to be a great educational success in the area. Most schools are marked by a pattern of teacher transfer at a rapid rate and the turnover of the pupils can be very high. However, this school managed to provide a wonderfully stable education with an environment which involved the parents substantially in their children's education. It spread into the community and a Ballymun community festival was held as a result.
Recently the school hosted a major concert in the National Concert Hall which was supported by Irish artists in the traditional music field. They have established a record of success at primary school level which is second to none. Their students were doing remarkably well and at sixth class level were competing very favourably with students all over the country. However, as time went on and pupils left that facility, it was found that students who had shown remarkable promise were dropping out within a year or two of moving to other schools. They had a choice if they wished to continue in an Irish environment of two excellent schools, Coláiste Mhuire for the boys and Scoil Caitríona for the girls. While these are excellent schools and have great and long traditions of very high academic standards, they have a middle class environment, attitude and approach and their curriculum is almost entirely academic. The students coming from the all-Irish school were dropping out very rapidly, even those who had been excellent at primary level.
Parents identified the need for a different type of education through Irish for their pupils. They formulated a request to the City of Dublin VEC to see if they would undertake the provision of a vocational type education through Irish for students for whom the academic environment was unsuitable; they wanted one which would retain the high level of involvement of parents which existed at primary level. With that in mind they approached the VEC who were happy to take on this project as they were very anxious to have an educational outlet in the Ballymun area. They also approached the other schools in the area, the junior and senior comprehensives, and identified a suitable site between the Irish school and the comprehensive which provide an excellent education through English. The comprehensive school welcome the development and are willing to share facilities with any school developed on that site.
In putting the case to the Department the school were very conscious that the Department could only accede to the request if there was sufficient need for it on the north side and that there would not be undue duplication. I am not committed in any way to the Irish language — I have a limited competence in it — but I recognise that many people have a great love for it which is central to their lives. Recently there has been a phenomenon in Dublin with regard to the development of a scoil lán-Ghaeilge on the fringes of the city. There are seven such schools on the north side from Ballymun out as far as Swords and they could all potentially provide students for a second level school based on the northside. A survey has been done on these schools which indicated that there is a substantial interest in them which would be adequate to supply a population for a second level school without unduly interfering with the population of Scoil Caitríona, Coláiste Mhuire or other existing educational facilities.
The other major issue is whether these schools should develop a greater range of educational facilities. Indeed they should and are doing so at present. The Minister of State might mention to his Minister that he more than anyone should realise that things change slowly and that traditions do not die overnight. In the interim, schoolchildren are leaving the mainline educational system and moving from Irish schools to vocational schools operating through the English language. This should not happen and we should try to transform their existing options.
The matter has now been considered by the post-primary advisory council who advise the Minister on suitable locations for schools. Having considered the matter over a series of meetings, the council have given their blessing to the development of such a school. This is a very important development and all that is required now is for the Minister to give the go-ahead. Initially we require a commitment to commence, perhaps in a prefab or two, on the site adjacent to the school which is willing to share the facilities to which I referred earlier. The senior comprehensive has a full range of laboratories and specialist workrooms which could be used immediately by the school without great expenditure by the State.
Such a facility already exists on the south side of Dublin and was developed by the County Dublin VEC. They had only 15 pupils to start with in a school in Clondalkin. It has been extremely successful and people on the north side have travelled to it to examine the kind of education provided. They identified it as being a continuation of the kind of education they provide in their primary schools and it has the educational atmosphere in which they would wish their children to be educated. If such an environment is not provided their children will not continue with their education.
The Government have shown a commitment to primary schools and recently the Taoiseach visited Ballymun to give the go-ahead to a project that would not have got under way without his assistance and that of the job centre for the Ballymun area. If it had been left to the forces of normal bureaucracy, it would have been impossible to open the school but, because of the direct commitment and involvement of the Taoiseach and a local committee, the problems were solved and a new experiment is starting in Ballymun. The same happened in Darndale, another area of high need on the north side of Dublin. The Taoiseach has been involved in a major commitment to a total redevelopment in that area which is very much needed and it would be very much in the spirit of that commitment to these areas that this Government should give the go-ahead to this development to commence in the autumn of this year as requested by the city of Dublin VEC.
In doing so they would be giving recognition to one of the very outstanding successes this community can boast of, and would be recognising and supporting that achievement and, therefore, supporting the stabilisation of a substantial part of that community, because this school has no problem filling its places but has waiting lists of people anxious to come in. That is exactly the kind of stabilisation we need in the Ballymun area. This project could be a way of developing that through to a second generation and ensuring that the young people who get an excellent start at primary level can continue to have that support and opportunity for development when in second level schooling.
The Minister may or may not be aware that the site we are talking about, the area we are talking about, is one which is bounded by the National Institute of Higher Education, the two comprehensive schools and another primary school. So it is an ideal educational cluster an area where there is a good deal of travelling to and from the north side and throughout the north side by people for their education. As such it is well located to draw in from a catchment area and, indeed, there would be a transport entitlement as a result of existing Department of Education policies for those travelling to avail of Irish education. There is such a travelling arrangement operating close by to Scoil Caitríona.
I am satisfied that this is very much needed, that it could be an immense boost to the area. I ask the Minister to consider the points I have made, to consider the record of the group involved, the success of the educational venture they have already undertaken in the primary area, the great need in the area and the fact that I am absolutely certain that with the trend towards all-Irish primary schools, which seem to be spontaneously mushrooming all over this city, one way or another it is only a question of time before this facility is provided. The younger generation now are anxiously awaiting a decision on this; young people are anxious to commence their education in such an environment which is not available to them on the north side of the city and would be available to them were they on the south side. That is an entirely inquitable situation that cannot be allowed to continue. I ask the Minister to undertake to resolve it quickly.
