I am now calling Senator Costello on the Adjournment.
Adjournment Matter. - Provision of Dublin School Building.
Acting Chairman
I raise this important issue, that St. Kevin's community school be provided with a permanent structure, to highlight the situation in which the parents, staff and students of the school are at present. That would have been brought home to the Minister last week when the parents, staff and pupils demonstrated outside of the Department of Education. The week before that, the parents took the long journey to Athlone to the Minister's advice centre to highlight the inadequacy of the service being provided in the school their children are being educated.
It is scandalous that four years after the decision was taken to set up St. Kevin's community school for the people of north Clondalkin, a permanent structure has not been put in place. In 1986 the Minister for Education said that the Department had sanctioned the provision of a new school for north Clondalkin to operate from September 1986 and 70 to 90 pupils were to start from that month. The Minister further stated that the building unit in the Department of Education had been asked to make the necessary arrangements so that a suitable site for the school could be acquired and architectural planning commenced as soon as possible. In the meantime the school was to be located in the old vocational school building in Lucan from September 1987 until the new building was complete.
Four years have passed and the old building is now in a scandalous state of repair. It is falling apart and is totally inadequate in relation to accommodation, facilities, the size of the classrooms, the condition of the structure and so on. The parents, staff and pupils have been complaining about that and they are anxious for the Minister to take action.
To make matters worse, the lease on the site expires on 31 January. There will be no school available for these 270 pupils on 1 February. Action has not been taken to provide a permanent structure or to provide alternative accommodation for the pupils. It is a case of most pressing need.
The request for the school is totally justified and that is why the Minister confirmed that the permanent structure will be provided. Figures are available from the two primary schools currently servicing the community college. St. Bernadette's national school has an intake of 248 at present and will double its intake next year. The Archbishop Ryan school has approximately 1,100 pupils at the moment. The prediction for the increase in enrolment capacity required at post-primary level is enormous. At present these are 270 pupils at post-primary level, which will increase to 386 next year, and that will be the first complete cycle the school will have. In 1991-92 the figure will increase to 489, in 1992-93 it will increase to 589 and the next year it will increase to 688, the following year to 757, then in 1995 it will increase to 805, the next year to 834 and by 1997-98 it will increase to 874 pupils. There is an expected three-fold increase in the numbers of post-primary pupils who will be seeking education in the catchment area. There is every justification for the school.
In certain areas we have heard about a contraction in pupil numbers due to emigration and a drop in the birth rate. In Clondalkin the opposite is true. An ERDO survey was done in relation to the general area in terms of likely population increase and it showed that in the general area of Clondalkin/Lucan the population will almost double between now and the year 2001. It is a fast growing area where there will be a large number of pupils requiring education and that requires a permanent structure which, as yet, has not materialised.
A further problem relates to the level of disadvantage in the area; it is one of the most disadvantaged areas of the city. A recent survey of the area by FÁS included a survey of the parishes of Rowlagh which includes Quarryvale where the school is to be situated, Balgaddy and Neilstown and showed that the population in that immediate catchment area was almost 16,000, that almost 36 per cent of the population were attending pre-school or primary schools at present, that 12.3 per cent are attending post-primary school and that 0.1 per cent were going for third level education. The area is extremely disadvantaged in educational terms and according to the survey only 18.8 per cent of the population are actually employed.
In 1987, the year in which the survey was conducted, 40.4 per cent of the pupils finished school after sitting the group or intermediate examination. The school leavers at that time, as the original school was being established, had an employment rate of 25.9 per cent — a little more than a quarter of them were going into gainful employment while the unemployed rate for the school leavers was 55½ per cent; the others were in training or other activities. In terms of educational attainment of the school leavers, 30.8 per cent had not taken any examination and had left school; 23 per cent had completed primary education, 20 per cent group education, 15 per cent had done the intermediate certificate examination and only 10.5 per cent had gone to full post-primary education. It can be seen that more than half those unemployed have only primary education and 30 per cent of that number are without qualifications or job training.
The overall conclusion is that the area has a very young population, a very small percentage are getting full primary education, a much smaller percentage are getting second level and almost none go on to third level. There is a very low level of educational achievement particularly among the unemployed and the older age group. Only a small proportion have sat for the leaving certificate examination. A significant proportion of job training is in the traditional areas of employment. Few have professional or technical qualifications. In addition, only a very small proportion of all employed are undergoing apprenticeships. We all know education affects life's chances significantly. Surveys of those leaving the education system along with the data on overall unemployment suggest the vast majority of the young unemployed, particularly those out of work for long periods, are of low educational achievement and relatively unskilled.
We have a fairly appalling picture of educational, social and economic deprivation with a really horrendous level of unemployment of 80 per cent in the area. We must remember that many of those families have been relocated from the inner city into public housing and virtually all the housing there is public housing, so there is an onus to ensure that there is a decent level of educational opportunity.
Let us look for a moment at the document the Government signed with the trade unions, the Programme for National Recovery and the commitments to education made therein. First, the programme recognises the importance of the educational system in the promotion of equity in society and states that the Government will ensure that the burden of any adjustment does not fall on the disadvantaged. Here we have a most disadvantaged area, as disadvantaged and deprived as could be found anywhere in the country, with the burden falling disproportionately on the disadvantaged. There is no promotion of equity in this area in terms of educational attainment.
Secondly, the programme provides that special measures will be produced to help disadvantaged groups with special needs to achieve their potential. Nothing has been done about that. There is no adult education in the area. It would be intended that new schools would provide a focus and centre for adult education and other opportunities in training.
Thirdly, the programme states, that action will be taken to encourage more second level pupils to complete the senior cycle and more working class children to advance to third level education and special measures will be devised to attract priority one pupils to vocational preparation and training courses. There is no fulfilment whatsoever of that provision of the Programme for National Recovery. Nothing has been done to encourage more pupils to complete second level education — 10.5 per cent are completing second level, 90 per cent are not even sitting for the leaving certificate, and 0.1 per cent are going on to third level. What is being done for working class children to advance to third level in this situation? Absolutely nothing.
Finally, the Programme for National Recovery stated that programmes of community education and adult literacy would continue and would be intensive to the limits that resources permit. Certainly in relation to north Clondalkin resources have not permitted anything to be done to ensure that courses in literacy and adult education are introduced and implemented.
That is the situation and the profile of the community we are talking about. The parents and staff want a site that has been identified and which the corporation are willing to sell or lease to the VEC. That site is off Fonthill Road where there is sufficient space for the new community school, for new football pitches, tennis courts, a community centre, an educational structure that would be a community structure as well and which would provide créche facilities and a library which would facilitate adult education and provide an oratory. They want a building to be designed in such a way as to be adaptable to the present and future needs of the community. That really is what is required. At present all we have is an old vocational school in Lucan a number of miles away where the children are bussed every day and if they miss the bus by two or three minutes they do not get education that day. This is those children's fourth year going to Lucan and we are coming into a fifth year cycle with the numbers increasing dramatically and no permanent site for the school. It is not too much to ask the Department of Education and the Minister to fulfil a commitment made in 1986 to provide a permanent structure for the school.
It is clear that the deprived families of north Clondalkin will become even more deprived unless they are provided with the basic entitlement, namely, a post-primary school which would be a focal point for the local community and would provide them with an opportunity to break out of the vicious circle of disadvantage in which they are trapped. The deprived children of Clondalkin are not seeking a programme of positive discrimination in their favour. They are simply making a plea to be provided with equality of educational opportunity like every other child in this State.
It is the Minister's duty to ensure that the Government's commitments given in the Programme for National Recovery to promote equity in society and to ensure that the burden of any adjustment does not fall on the disadvantaged and deprived are honoured, and she can only honour that commitment by ensuring that this long awaited school is constructed without delay.
I would like to hear the Minister of State who is deputising for the Minister, Deputy O'Rourke, state categorically what the position is. Will the capital funding be made available in the coming budget to enable the school to be constructed so that the parents, staff and pupils can on with the job of education and ensure that steps are taken to alleviate the levels of disadvantage and deprivation in education, that prevail at present in north Clondalkin?
I thank Senator Costello for his contribution, and I congratulate him on his election to the Seanad.
As the Senator is aware, it is the Department's policy to monitor carefully developments in all areas of Dublin which have been expanding over the past ten to 20 years. This is especially true in the case of the Clondalkin area generally and the Department are aware of the many problems which can be experienced by primary and post-primary pupils in such developing areas. In this regard, the Department have a good record in providing educational facilities at primary and post-primary level.
St. Kevin's community college, the most recent post-primary school established servicing the north Clondalkin areas of Quarryvale and Balgaddy mainly, opened in September 1986 and was housed temporarily in Collinstown Park community college. The decision to open a new post-primary school in north Clondalkin was taken by the then Minister, Deputy Patrick Cooney, in June 1986. A major factor involved was the inability of Collinstown Park community college to enrol new entrants from the areas now served by St. Kevin's community college. As from September 1987, the St. Kevin's pupils have been accommodated in the old — and recently vacated — vocational school, Lucan. Current enrolment in St. Kevin's is 270 pupils. The pupils are transported to Lucan at the Department's expense.
Arrangements for the acquisition of a site and the commencement of architectural planning were initiated. It was considered that a school to provide for 400 pupils would be required.
Two possible sites reserved by the county council were considered. In January 1987 it was agreed with the VEC that a site on Fonthill Road was the more suitable.
A number of factors have had to be considered by the Department prior to proceeding with the purchase of the site in question. These include: (i) the high cost involved, given the strict limitation of funding available to the Department; (ii) as with other major building projects proposed for the Greater Dublin area, the planning section of the Department has carried out a number of reviews of the Clondalkin area to assess the future demand for post primary education. The halt in the provision of new housing in the area, the effects of the £5,000 local authority grant and the phenomenon of peaking enrolments followed by a rapid decline in pupil numbers seen in other developing areas — all these have had to be given careful consideration by the Department; and (iii) in May 1988, a "Review of Policy for the Provision of New and Replacement Accommodation for Primary and Second Level Schools" was completed by an Interdepartmental Committee consisting of officials of the Departments of Education and Finance. The report was submitted to the Ministers for Education and Finance and its recommendations were endorsed by both Ministers.
A crucial recommendation contained in the review was that:
In major urban areas, where there are no defined catchment areas, consideration of an application from any school or area for new, extended or improved accommodation shall have regard to the accommodation situation actual and projected within reasonable access of a particular school or area. In this context and in the light of the school transport provisions, a distance of 3 miles is not considered unreasonable.
The Department have had to consider the implications of providing another greenfield school building in Clondalkin in the light of the above recommendation.
The position, therefore, regarding St. Kevin's community college is that, in view of the factors cited, all aspects of the project are subject to a detailed investigation before commitments can be entered into. In this regard the planning section of the Department have had a number of meetings this year with representatives of County Dublin VEC and the school's board of management. The Minister for Education has also met representatives of St. Kevin's community college.
These discussions have centred on: (i) the short term problem — where and how to accommodate the school for the coming years, given that the old vocational school building in Lucan will be inadequate from 1990 onwards. The problem has been made more acute by the recent sale of land adjoining the school which the VEC had leased to erect prefabricated accommodation; and (ii) the long term problem — the difficulties relating to the provision of a new school building for St. Kevin's community college.
At these meetings a wide range of options have been discussed and County Dublin VEC considered the matter at meetings held on 20 November and 6 December.
County Dublin VEC's proposals on the matter have just today been received in the planning section of the Department and these are now being carefully examined. I would not wish to comment on these proposals until this examination is completed. However, I would stress that the Department accept that the present accommodation arrangements are not satisfactory. The Minister, and the Department, wish to see the best possible facilities made available to the post primary pupils of north Clondalkin. It is hoped, therefore, that a satisfactory resolution, acceptable to all parties can be arrived at.
The Seanad adjourned at 4.45 p.m. sine die.