Transcript:

Deputy Costello:
In Dublin South-Central there is a huge under-provision of second level education. Figures from the Department of Education show that in Dublin 8 alone there are about 3,500 primary school pupils and there are currently second level places for less than a third of them. A new school is badly needed. There is an old SIPTU college site on South Circular Road, with an under-used Office of Public Works, OPW, warehouse abutting it. The college is already zoned for educational use. There is a Dublin City Council site on Marrowbone Lane. These are two sites that could easily be used to address this imbalance. Can the Government commit to providing a new school to address this imbalance? More widely, we need to look at how we do school planning because it just is not working.

Minister Madigan:

We have a number of school planning areas throughout the country and, as the Deputy knows, we have 4,000 schools in totality. It is important that we provide an education to every single child. It is a constitutional right for all children, including children with additional needs. I can speak to the Deputy in regard to the sites in his constituency.