Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 22 January 2019
33. Deputy Thomas Byrne asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to provide more post-primary spaces in Dunshaughlin, County Meath and primary places in Ashbourne, County Meath; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2722/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy question is two-pronged and concerns school provision in my constituency. I have asked about post-primary provision in Dunshaughlin, which the Minister will be aware of because I have mentioned it to him previously. I have mentioned it to his officials and I am sure colleagues from his own party have said it to him too. There is huge pressure on post-primary provision in Dunshaughlin. We still await a decision from the Department about accommodation for Dunshaughlin Community College. A review of the situation in Ashbourne and the possible need for a further primary school there has been under way for some time. I have raised that issue previously, which is why the review is taking place. Can the Minister provide an update on that review?
I acknowledge the Deputy for his creative approach to this question. In April 2018, the Government announced plans for the establishment of 42 new schools over the next four years, that is, from 2019 to 2022. The announcement followed nationwide demographic exercises carried out by my Department into the future needs for primary and post-primary schools across the country.
Where demographic data indicate that additional provision is required, the delivery of such additional provision is dependent on the particular circumstances of each case and may, depending on the circumstances, be provided through either one or a combination of the following options, namely, utilising existing unused capacity within a school or schools, extending the capacity of a school or schools and the provision of a new school or schools.
In addition to the new schools announced, there will be a need for further school accommodation in other areas in the future. Approximately 40% of extra school places are delivered by extending existing schools.
While the announcement did not include a new post-primary school for the Dunshaughlin school planning area, the requirement for new schools will be kept under ongoing review and will have regard for the increased roll-out of housing provision as outlined in Project Ireland 2040.
My Department undertook a review of the position in respect of primary provision for the Ashbourne school planning area in the latter half of 2018. The Department considers that there is a need for increased capacity in the area in the short term and over the medium to long term, taking account of residential development in the area. The Department’s approach to achieving this in the first instance is through the expansion of existing provision, and engagement is ongoing in this regard. The Department expects this engagement to conclude over the coming weeks.
I am very disappointed with the response on the issue of provision for Ashbourne. We have been waiting for this review for some time. The Minister has said that there is a need for more provision. I know that. As I understood it, the review was supposed to decide whether there should be another school in Ashbourne. I know that departmental officials have engaged with principals of schools in Ashbourne. I bumped into them last summer. The truth is that it is virtually impossible to expand the existing schools there. The Minister knows that and it is known that one of them certainly cannot be expanded due to where it is located. I was expecting an answer one way or the other, rather than more engagement on the issue. The engagement happened six months ago.
I received a query to my office today concerning primary school places in Ashbourne from people who received a council house there. Their children go to school elsewhere but their children cannot get a place at a school in Ashbourne. I received another email, on the day this matter arose at the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, from a constituent whose child could not get into a primary school in Ashbourne. It must be said - and perhaps this is why the Department does not seem to be worried about the issue - that this problem often arises for people with eastern European or African backgrounds. These children are Irish citizens, are resident here and are as entitled to satisfaction of their constitutional right to education as anyone else. What is happening here is utter discrimination from the Minister's Department. Because these children generally come from families which do not speak English at home, it does not matter and officialdom does not seem to care about them. That is a fact. If the situation was that children from Irish backgrounds were shouting and screaming about this, we would hear a lot more about it from the Minister. This has to change. There is a particular problem in Ashbourne and the Department is turning a blind eye to it.
I completely disagree with the last part of the Deputy's contribution. There is no evidence whatsoever of discrimination, whether we are dealing with new migrants or Irish people. The measures being used make use of mathematical data and GIS data from Ordnance Survey Ireland, as well as statistics from the Central Statistics Office. We use the raw data and analyse the numbers. There also is an important element of forward planning, and the people holding that information are the local authorities. Meath County Council will know the projected data in terms of planning and residential development. If the Deputy is suggesting that there will be extra demand because of extra residential building, that will be factored into the review, which will be completed in a couple of weeks. I do not know what the outcome of that review will be; I have not been a part of that. Departmental officials have been doing the enumeration in that regard. The Department looks at the broader spectrum of population and I can categorically state there is no two-tiered system for looking after young people in this country.
The Minister will forgive me if I do not express full confidence in his forward planning section. To be honest, until recent months the Department of Education and Skills was only taking into account local infrastructure housing activation fund, LIHAF, developments, which were specific developments which received special funding for roads and infrastructure from the Government. It did not take into account all of the planning permissions and rezoning that had occurred in Dunshaughlin, for example. It simply was not working in the correct way. The system was changed subsequently. Meath County Council was quite shocked at the requests it received from the Department. It is a fact that while many children from various backgrounds are affected by the shortage of primary school places in Ashbourne, the majority of those who contact me are people from families whose first language is not English and who do not have access to information. These people, for their own reasons, are not prepared to send their children to a Gaelscoil. I raised the issue of a particular family on television in September 2016. They live in Ashbourne; one parent was Slovak and the other was Polish. They were trying to teach their child English but were offered a place in a Gaelscoil. This is what is happening and it is about time that the Minister opened his eyes to it. If it is happening in Ashbourne, it is happening in other towns as well. We must make sure that everybody, from every background, is afforded proper provision for their education and that the Department knows exactly who is moving into towns so that we can provide a proper education for them. Every time I raise this issue, I am contacted by another person in the same situation, by pure coincidence. This is what is happening on the ground. The demand is there.
I am happy for an official from the Department to make contact with Meath County Council in order to look at the specific areas Deputy Thomas Byrne has highlighted. I assume that conversation is ongoing anyway because the Department is trying to collect the data and projecting building requirements into the future.
One of the most interesting, significant and positive things about this country is the way in which we embrace new communities. We have done it really well. For example, at St. Luke's national school in Tyrrelstown there are many migrant communities which work together in an inclusive way. In my own constituency, I attended a school last Friday in Letterkenny where 32 different nationalities are represented. We have embraced new communities. People are living side by side and communities are working together, and much of the credit for that is due to the school system. The Department of Education and Skills, long before I became Minister, had been working on that to ensure that we provide a totally inclusive education for all young people.
