Education Minister Urged To Address Ongoing Shortage Of School Places In Greystones

8 families in Greystones are still without a secondary school place for their children ahead of the upcoming school year.

The shortage of secondary school places in the wider Greystones area has been a consistent issue in recent years but has come to a head this month with urgent intervention required to ensure every student has a place.

Discussing the issue, Deputy Steven Matthews said:

“Huge credit must go to the school principals, secretaries and other staff who have done all they can to accommodate as many students as possible within their limited space. With just over six weeks before school starts, we need direct intervention from the Minister for Education to offer certainty to these remaining eight families.

The stress and worry this has caused the eight families and in particular the students impacted is deeply unfair and totally unacceptable. I am in frequent contact with these families and while I have submitted Parliamentary Questions, spoken to the Minister and her officials directly as well as raising it in the Dáil Chamber, the issue remains unresolved.

These families feel let down and forgotten about. I have written on a series of occasions to the Minister for Education and the Taoiseach to request an urgent meeting but I have received no response. We are no closer to a solution than we were two months ago.

I can’t understand how this is being allowed to continue when we have two senior ministers including the Taoiseach not only in the constituency but living in the same town. They sit with Minister Foley at cabinet and need to actively engage with her to resolve this.

We have seen positive progress with shovels in the ground for Greystones Community College and the extension for Coláiste Chraobh Abhann going to tender shortly but these big announcements gloss over the reality for these families without a school place.

This needs to be urgently resolved while also working on the long-term solutions that include both the construction projects for Greystones Community College and Coláiste Chraobh Abhann but also the extension for Temple Carrig School and the provision of a new secondary school in Newtownmountkennedy, concluded Deputy Matthews.