Department has its head in the sand about Lucan school places
Sinn Féin Dublin Mid West general election candidate Joanne Spain has
accused the Department of Education of having its head in the sand when it
comes to the lack of school places in Lucan. Ms Spain made her comments
after receiving a reply to a question she put to the Dept. through her
colleague Seán Crowe TD. She put the question in after
being
contacted by a number of people struggling to get children into Lucan
schools.
Ms Spain said:
"We've known for some time
that large class sizes is already an issue in Lucan schools, but even more
serious is the fact that some people cannot seem to get their children in to
a school at all. People living in the area all their lives are putting down
their children's names at birth and still face an anxious wait, while people
who move to the area are being forced to leave their children in their old
primary schools and deal with lengthy commutes in atrocious traffic each day.
"It
was after hearing a particularly distressing example of this latter problem,
that I put the question into the Department of Education. The reply I got
was completely unsatisfactory. We know that there are more schools in Lucan
now, the problem is there are not enough. The Department is insisting that
the schools in Lucan have the capacity to deal with all the children there.
That is not what I am hearing on the doors and there are individuals ready
to go to the Dept. directly about this. Either the Department has its head
in the sand about this issue or the schools are not telling the truth about
their
capacity. Given the Department's many broken promises and failures in our
schools, I'm inclined to believe the schools.
"We need far more
investment in education in Lucan to deal with this area's growth. We're
still waiting for the Minister to come through on her promise of class-room
sizes of 20:1. Currently, students in Lucan and the rest of Dublin Mid West
have average class sizes of 28:1. Perhaps, when the Department talks about
capacity, what they are
implying is that they want schools to increase
their class sizes even further to deal with the demand for school places.
When will the Department stop issuing standard responses to these questions
and start dealing with the actual issues?"
Uimhir:878
Ceist
Pharlaiminte
Chun an Aire Oideachais agus Eolaíoctha
To
ask the Minister for Education and Science if her attention has
been
drawn to the lack of school places in Lucan; and the action being
taken
to address this situation.
* For WRITTEN answer on Tuesday,
20th March, 2007.
Reference Number: 10164/07
Freagra
Minister
for Education and Science (Mary Hanafin, T.D.)
I am conscious of
the fact that Lucan is one of the fastest growing
areas in the Country.
In light of this, the Department has expanded
capacity significantly at
both primary and post primary level to cater
for existing and newly
emerging demands for pupil places.
There are eleven primary
schools in the Lucan area including two new
state of the art
multi-denominational schools and a new Gaelscoil
which commenced
operation in September 2005. These developments
together with a number
of extensions to existing schools, the
provision of temporary
accommodation and the re-organisation of one
school to enable the
enrolment of an additional two junior infant
classes has increased
capacity significantly in the area. In addition,
Scoil Mhuire,
Archbishop Ryan JNS, St Thomas NS and Scoil Aine were
recently given
approval to commence the architectural planning process
for major
extensions and are to receive design team appointments
shortly. Through
a combination of these measures, the School Planning
Section of the
Department is satisfied that, between them, the schools
have adequate
accommodation to cater for current demand. The
Department continues to
monitor school needs in the Lucan area.
With regard to post
primary capacity specifically, a new school for
Coláiste Cois Life was
recently completed. This will provide places
for 600 pupils, some 400
additional places relative to its then
existing capacity.
In
addition to this, capacity at Coláiste Phádraig was increased by
300
pupil places with the completion of a major extension project at
that
school. A further extension project at St. Joseph's College was
completed
in 2004. This is deemed sufficient to meet demand from
pupils in its
catchment area. In addition, Lucan Community College is
to
receive a design team appointment shortly to provide additional
accommodation
to increase its overall capacity to 1000 pupils.
The Deputy
will probably be aware that there is considerable vacant
capacity at
post primary level in areas adjacent to Lucan. Given that
it is
practice, particularly in Dublin, for post-primary students to
travel
some distance to attend a post-primary school, it is not
unreasonable
that the Department should seek to optimise the use of
existing surplus
capacity at post-primary schools in the general
vicinity of Lucan as
part of its strategy to address any shortfall for
post- primary places
that may emerge.
The Department will continue to monitor the
situation in Lucan to
ensure that any future emerging needs are
addressed in a timely
manner.